pink cucumber in reefs

[emm0909]

little help with pink cucumbers. Do they release any toxins? Will they be reef safe 100%. I could use some reading material.

 

[kerriann]

I have one and from what I was told its absolutely reef safe. Mine mostly sits right by the outtake filtering particles out of the water. Watch tho because for the longest time ours just covered the protein skimmer so nothing was getting filtered and we'd just be pumping air back into the tank. Also, make sure you don't have nitrate problems because from what I've read they cannot tolerate high nitrates. I haven't heard of toxins from it. Neat lil creature tho and some will clean the rock and sand - we just couldn't keep ours down there! Probably not enough water flow for it

 

[ophiura]

I would probably want a picture. There are TWO major types of cucumbers - a filter feeder, and a sand sifter...and both need certain care. You need to be sure which one you are getting. The filter feeders, in particular, can be toxic, and they also need a lot of filter feeder food. Sand sifters need particular types of substrate.
I would start with some specifics about your tank - parameters, age, inhabitants, and we'll go from there.
These are animals that are not for young tanks, and they are very very sensitive to water parameters.

 

[texasmetal]

If it's the one they sell on this site, I'd say it looks like a filter feeder, considering the feathery appendages coming out of its mouth. Similar to a Sea Apple. I know that Sea Apples have the ability to "nuke" a tank if they get damaged/stressed. I would approach this cucumber with the same concern.
About 5 months ago my girlfriend had a yellow sand-sifting cucumber in her 60 gallon seahorse/softie reef tank. The cucumber got damaged somehow (side was split open when I found it) and killed all but 3 of her 14 Erectus horses, and the tank has never been the same since. Most of the corals are making a comeback, but some of them completely died off.
In my opinion it's not worth it.

 

[reefer545]

Pink cucumbers are non toxic. But dont drop it or touch it any more than you have to. Dont drop a rock on it. Dont put it in a tank with aggresive fish/eels. They can still evacuate thier bowels, which is obviously not good. Beautiful cukes though.

 

[emm0909]

I was looking at the filter feeders but I have a young tank. I'd rather pick up a new coral I think anyway. Hence why I only have two fish. My roomate is constantly complaining, "When are you going to put some fish in there?"