Yellow sea cucumber (Colochirus robustus)

[Pszemol]

Anybody has here yellow sea cucumber in his/her tank?

I have two, purchased last Wednesday form a LFS...
I noticed mine stay closed during the day, with their
crowns retracted into their body... They open during
the night, when fish sleep, and they are eating...
This very unique finger-licking is very nice, I wish
they do this when the lights are on :-)

What are your experiences with this animal ?
What do you use to feed it ?

[Charles Spitzer]

i have a brown one with light green/yellow tentacles i collected in mexico
in my reef tank. it comes out at all hours, so it appears that it isn't
affected by the lights. i haven't fed it anything at all, but it probably
scavenges all sorts of stuff from the water column from when i feed the
fish. i've had it going on 6 years or so. it's about doubled in size, about
4" long.

regards,
charlie
cave creek, az

"Pszemol" > wrote in message
...
> Anybody has here yellow sea cucumber in his/her tank?
>
> I have two, purchased last Wednesday form a LFS...
> I noticed mine stay closed during the day, with their
> crowns retracted into their body... They open during
> the night, when fish sleep, and they are eating...
> This very unique finger-licking is very nice, I wish
> they do this when the lights are on :-)
>
> What are your experiences with this animal ?
> What do you use to feed it ?

[Pszemol]

"Charles Spitzer" > wrote in message ...
> i have a brown one with light green/yellow tentacles i collected in mexico
> in my reef tank. it comes out at all hours, so it appears that it isn't
> affected by the lights. i haven't fed it anything at all, but it probably
> scavenges all sorts of stuff from the water column from when i feed the
> fish. i've had it going on 6 years or so. it's about doubled in size, about
> 4" long.

Excellent... Do you have maybe its picture ?
Or maybe scientific name, then I could find pictures myself ?
I find myself fascinated by these creatures...

[Charles Spitzer]

"Pszemol" > wrote in message
...
> "Charles Spitzer" > wrote in message
> ...
>> i have a brown one with light green/yellow tentacles i collected in
>> mexico in my reef tank. it comes out at all hours, so it appears that it
>> isn't affected by the lights. i haven't fed it anything at all, but it
>> probably scavenges all sorts of stuff from the water column from when i
>> feed the fish. i've had it going on 6 years or so. it's about doubled in
>> size, about 4" long.
>
> Excellent... Do you have maybe its picture ?
> Or maybe scientific name, then I could find pictures myself ?
> I find myself fascinated by these creatures...

sorry, no pictures. i think it's Isostichopus fuscus
http://baja.divebums.com/FieldID/Pages/cucumber_brown.html because i've been
told that that is the most common, but the one i have doesn't match the
pictures that i've been able to find of it. it has the same brown body, but
not the reddish spots.

it stays hidden either in the back of the tank or under the live rock for
months at a time. sometimes it comes out when i clean the tank because it
likes to wave it's tentacles around when the water is turbid and mucked up.
it stayed disappeared for a year once. i'll try to remember to get a picture
for you the next time i clean.

[Pszemol]

"Charles Spitzer" > wrote in message ...
> sorry, no pictures. i think it's Isostichopus fuscus
> http://baja.divebums.com/FieldID/Pages/cucumber_brown.html because i've been
> told that that is the most common, but the one i have doesn't match the
> pictures that i've been able to find of it. it has the same brown body, but
> not the reddish spots.
>
> it stays hidden either in the back of the tank or under the live rock for
> months at a time. sometimes it comes out when i clean the tank because it
> likes to wave it's tentacles around when the water is turbid and mucked up.
> it stayed disappeared for a year once. i'll try to remember to get a picture
> for you the next time i clean.

Well... so yours is filterfeeder like mine, not the sand-eating variation...
How often you clean your tank - maybe I should try to make a "storm" and
mix some detritus in my tank instead of using phytoplankton for feeding it? :-)

[Charles Spitzer]

"Pszemol" > wrote in message
...
> "Charles Spitzer" > wrote in message
> ...
>> sorry, no pictures. i think it's Isostichopus fuscus
>> http://baja.divebums.com/FieldID/Pages/cucumber_brown.html because i've
>> been told that that is the most common, but the one i have doesn't match
>> the pictures that i've been able to find of it. it has the same brown
>> body, but not the reddish spots.
>>
>> it stays hidden either in the back of the tank or under the live rock for
>> months at a time. sometimes it comes out when i clean the tank because it
>> likes to wave it's tentacles around when the water is turbid and mucked
>> up. it stayed disappeared for a year once. i'll try to remember to get a
>> picture for you the next time i clean.
>
> Well... so yours is filterfeeder like mine, not the sand-eating
> variation...
> How often you clean your tank - maybe I should try to make a "storm" and
> mix some detritus in my tank instead of using phytoplankton for feeding
> it? :-)

yeah, it waves a lot up in the water, and every so often, it sticks it's
fingers in it's ass to clean them off. i'm pretty lax in doing water
changes, maybe every 6 weeks or so. i just feed flakes to my fish, so
whatever doesn't get eaten just blows around for the hermits and this guy to
catch.

[JustPhish0911]

Your yellow cucumber is not going to catch flakes out of the water column and
eat them. They are strict filter feeders like a feather duster would be. I
would suggest your varying the types of food you offer your tank if you want
the cucumber to survive long term rather than just feeding flake foods.

HTH
Thanks,
JP
www.justphish.com

[Charles Spitzer]

"JustPhish0911" > wrote in message
...
> Your yellow cucumber is not going to catch flakes out of the water column
> and
> eat them. They are strict filter feeders like a feather duster would be.
> I
> would suggest your varying the types of food you offer your tank if you
> want
> the cucumber to survive long term rather than just feeding flake foods.
>
> HTH
> Thanks,
> JP
> www.justphish.com

i guess no one told that to it, or it's really hungry by now. i've had it
for about 5 or 6 years. i would guess that the flakes break down into
smaller particles and that's what it traps.