pink cucumber

[ahpchagi]

I got a new pink cucumber, moved across substrate to the glass made it to the top of tank and seems to have welded itself to the glass at the surface of the water.(sometimes 5 % out of the water) Thought they were detritus feeders. Thats why I got him. Any experiance out there with new pinks? Should I finesse him off the glass and send him back to the live sand? I'm worried about him. thanks

 

[workman]

i have a pink and green cucumber, it hardly ever moves. it will stay in the same spot for months. my cuke eats stuff out of the water. it lets out its tenticles and traps small bits of stuff floating by. then it will put the tenticles in its mouth. you can't miss it with mine, it does this most of the day. i don't know if you have the same animal, but this is what mine does.

 

[workman]

i checked the picture under "pink cucumber" on this site. it is the same animal as the one i have. look to see if it has its "tenticles" out in the water, if it does it is eating.

 

[ophiura]

The more colorful cucumbers are filter feeders and will crawl on glass and rocks to find a suitable spot for flow. They should NEVER be moved by force, as this can cause them to eviscerate - puke out there guts - some of which are toxic. Most filter feeding cukes, IMO, slowly starve to death in tanks over many months - after digesting their internal organs. Any decrease in size should be an indication they are starving. For best results the tank should be dosed with fine filter feeder foods or liquid diets. Many slowly starve over 8-12 months.
Anyway, yours is not a sand sifter so I would recommend returning it to the LFS is you wanted one of those.

 

[ahpchagi]

Thanks for the heads up on my cuke. It does display tentacles. It is a very interesting animal and I will learn what it takes to keep it happy. I already feed the inverts, using "Marine Snow" and "Roti-Rich". (once every four days) Again, thanks for your replys