sea cucumber

OK so my son says hey when the tank is up and running we gotta get one. Are they good or bad?

 

they're great cleaners. what they do is eat dirty sand and excrete it sparkly clean. avoil colorful species though, as get are venomous and release toxing when stressed or dead. an attractive and safe species would be the Tiger Tail Sea Cucumber. most other safe species look like feces. anyways, good luck.

 

I think it's funny that either way you still have a turd looking thing laying on your sand LOL.

I've also been thinking about getting one. Spot won't let The AH over to his side of the tank to sift the sand.

 

cucumbers are awesome. Don't judge a book by its cover they are fascinating animals.

 

So when the tank is ready they are cool no down side to them? [ like they eat all of and only your 60.00 dollar zoas or mushrooms ].

 

never heard of that. all I see when I come home is pellets of clean sand. they stay on the sand too; never seen mine on the rock work. and there's no downside if its not venomous.

 

make sure you get a cleaner cucumber and not a psychedlic cucumber....
a cleaner cucumber will go around your tank and clean and do good, a psychedlic cucumber will attach itself to one place and send out its feeder tentacles and require frequent feeds with phyto etc. A psychedelic is cool but if they die they can release toxins to your tank and cause havoc. Should only be placed in a mature tank

the cleaners are usually yellow, black where they psychedilic are multiple colors together: mine was pink, yellow and red,

the cleaners are actually really cool IMO and are good to have

 

Could I put a regular cucumber in a newly cycled tank?

 

depends what your definition of regular is. here's mine: http://www.tradenote.net/images/users/000/027/908/products_images/318902.jpg it's the only one I know anything about.

 

I have a cucumber in each of my tanks and have never had a problem. Got one lost once. Found him in the overflow about 6 months later. Must have been something in there to keep him alive. Not sure I would put one in a newly cycled tank though. Really should have something to clean to stay alive. But when tank is ready, get one. You will really enjoy watching him poop. Yeah, I know that is weird, but hey that's what they do. ;D