Sea Cucumber - be warned!

I alluded to this in responding to @Fence13 post on his coral issue so thought I would elaborate on our tank issue.

It started with getting a large sea cucumber from a friend who was shutting their tank down several months ago. They had the animal for several years and, I have to admit, it was a cool critter so we took it without doing any real research. We liked it so much we added another small one when we ordered a CuC shortly thereafter (again, no research). I had heard they had some toxicity but having never heard of one causing real issues and a system with 400 gallons of water, wasn't overly concerned. Boy was I wrong.

Came home from church Sunday and noticed the tank was slightly cloudy - thinking the ATO might have kicked in a bit more kalk than usual (but water wasn't too cloudy so wasn't overly concerned about a kalk overdose) I walked over to the tank to see most fish were dead or struggling mightily. Needless to say, we panicked wondering what the heck was going on. Wracking my brain to figure out what could possibly have happened - no kalk overdose, all parameters tested fine. Called a friend who suggested it might be a bacterial bloom - presumably from overdosing vinegar but all dosing container levels were normal so it didn't seem like the doser freaked out and OD'd alk or vinegar etc. No kids in the house to have dumped something in it. We are very careful about no cleaners/chemicals near the tanks so could not figure it out. That was the worst part, just not knowing what had decimated our fish.

Then the skimmer pump quit working. At first, I thought "great, when it rains it pours" then I pulled the pump out and took it apart for a vinegar bath and noticed a lot of tough, rubbery tissue all caught up in the impeller and was perplexed...until Deanna said "didn't we have a cucumber?" and then it clicked....(see pic below of remains)

I did 115 gallons of water changes and added 5 lbs of carbon to the sump but was too late for most fish although corals and anemones (we have several BTA's and a ritteri) seemed only minimally affected. In fact, the clowns seemed completely un-phased making me wonder if they have immunity similar to with an anemone. At any rate, only our pair of clowns and mandarin survived.

We lost:
- 11" male Naso tang (RIP lips)
- 7" PBT
- 6 lyretail anthias
- 3 Bangaii cardinals
- matted file fish
- 4" purple tang
- lubocks fairy wrasse
- "red" fairy wrasse
- black cap basslet
- royal gramma
- black assessor
- chalk basslet
- splendid dottyback

Needless to say, a very costly lesson. Be sure to research any animals you add to your tank and be sure you are prepared to assume the potential risks. If the other cuke turns up you will see a "free to good home" post on this site 5 within minutes.

 

Man I'm sorry I know how terrible that is to see the fish like that and not being able to do anything about it.

 

This is terrible news to hear. I'm sorry for the loss.

 

When you get ready to restock let me know. I'll charge you my cost on livestock.

My distributors have a different selection each week. So it varies what is available.

 

Sorry to hear about that. Is the second cucumber still alive? Hopefully there won't be a repeat performance.

 

We dont know as we rarely see either of them.

 

Sorry to hear about the loss @Dave. Sounds like you have a heck of a tank so hopefully this doesn't take the wind out of your sails too much.

 

Ok. This just sucks. Way too many bad things happening to good people lately.
Sorry to hear about your losses Dave. Hopefully you can find the other cucumber soon.
Hope everything left bounces back.

 

Horrible... I am sorry for the loss.

 

So terrible Dave! Those fish were beauties!

 

man sorry to hear that man those fish were fat and happy

 

Very sorry to hear this Dave How did it make it's way to the sump to get into the skimmer?

Bill

 

Great question and one I can't answer other than the fact they have no bones so must be able to flatten out very thin to get in the overflow.

 

Sorry to hear about this, certainly sucks.


Sent from my iPad via App

 

Your scaring me! I have one to but he stays hidden all day and only extends half his body from under the rocks to feed. What type was yours? Mine is a tiger tail. Don't know if certain types are more toxic?

 

I have a tiger tail that split into two tiger tails AND I had thought him dead so there was a 3rd little poo colored cucumber I added......all of this to my 93gal. Guess who is going to go around with a flashlight tonight to try and find all his cucumbers....

 

I'm pretty sure if you disturb one to much trying to catch it it will spew out its toxic guts. The result being the same as Daves.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your fish too, Dave. That is just awful. :/ Just take it easy and don't let it kill your joy too much. It's hard to go through, but hopefully you and your tank will bounce back.

Will add cucumbers to my list of animals to avoid. I know the feeling, it really does suck.

 

What type of cucumber was it?