Cucumber's *detritus*

[Goldmoon]

I have seen on another post people talking about cucumbers..
I would have a question about them. I just bought one tonight.. he slept for an hour and went to work. Is it normal that what he leaves behind is all tied up in little balls in a big long greenish bag? It doesnt look like its guts, the one I was going to buy at the store emptied his when the sales person tried to bag him..
I'd like to know because seing those 3-4 inches long things on the sand is not much nicer then algae or detritus

 

[canadawest]

I guess it depends on what type of cucumber you have. My pink hawaiian cuke did something similar to yours, expelling a gel-like substance the first couple days after I got him. I don't think he liked the move from the LFS tank to mine. Anyway, 4 months later he is barely to be seen, but when he is out all he leaves is a big trail of sand "poop".

If you have any crabs or shrimp, they will make short work of that slimy mess your cuke has left behind.

FWIW, my two tiger tail cukes never did the gel puke thing, and they happily leave sand "poop" trails around the tank at night. I think cukes are great reef cleaners.

 

[2poor2reef]

I agree with Andrew. Typically, anything other than sand that comes out of your cuke is a sign of stress. There are some species I believe that expel on a seasonal basis but given that yours already started to self eviscerate at the store I would say that you are observing a continuation of that process. If it is eating and your sand bed is large and mature with plenty of bacteria and the grains are not too large then your cuke should recover.

 

[Goldmoon]

Tks for the replies.

I am not sure what kind of cucumber it is

My husband thinks it looks like a impatiens cucumber but I don't. It is brown with few wartlike spikes on it. It has 2 in front that looks like its eyes (I know they are not). I guess all cucumbers do it that way but in case: It looks like many short tongues come out of a mouth that becomes flat and larger to grab sand and bring it in.
I only have one cleaner shrimp and 2 emerald crabs.. I use snails (nassarius, cerith, astrea and conch)So far none have touched it

As for him releasing its guts, I did not take the one that did that. I know they survive such a thing but I asked the sales person to take another one. As you state, I would have needed a large mature sand bed. Mine is only about 5-6 weeks old and rather small (20 gallon tank full of LR).
Only thing I could think of is the aquarium they put them in doesn't have fine grain sand. They are about the size of rice. Maybe it is something he ate there? Or like you said, a sign of stress... hope he will settle down.
He did not seem too stressed.. As I put it in, he stayed there just about the time he was sure he would not be disturbed, and crawl to a more comfortable place, then less then hour later he was eating...