I think my cucumber is laying eggs?

prsnlty · Jun 6, 2012

Hi! Wondering if my yellow cuc is laying eggs or is this from stress?

SDguy · Jun 6, 2012

Looks like poop to me.

prsnlty · Jun 6, 2012

It has never done this before and I was wondering due to what this Wiki article says:

Most sea cucumbers reproduce by releasing sperm and ova into the ocean water. Depending on conditions, one organism can produce thousands of gametes. Sea cucumbers are typically dioecious, with separate male and female individuals, but some species are protandric. The reproductive system consists of a single gonad, consisting of a cluster of tubules emptying into a single duct that opens on the upper surface of the animal, close to the tentacles.^[12]

At least 30 species, including the red-chested sea cucumber (Pseudocnella insolens), fertilise their eggs internally and then pick up the fertilised zygote with one of their feeding tentacles. The egg is then inserted into a pouch on the adult's body, where it develops and eventually hatches from the pouch as a juvenile sea cucumber.^[20] A few species are known to brood their young inside the body cavity, giving birth through a small rupture in the body wall close to the anus.^[12]

In all other species, the egg develops into a free-swimming larva, typically after around three days of development. The first stage of larval development is known as an auricularia, and is only around 1 millimetre (0.039 in) in length. This larva swims by means of a long band of cilia wrapped around its body, and somewhat resembles the bipinnaria larva of starfish. As the larva grows it transforms into the doliolaria, with a barrel-shaped body and three to five separate rings of cilia. The tentacles are usually the first adult features to appear, before the regular tube feet.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_cucumber#cite_note-IZ-12

SDguy · Jun 6, 2012

I guess I'm not sure what in the picture I should be looking at... that big pile of gravel looking pellets to the left of it?

dallas reefer · Jun 6, 2012

It's poooo

prsnlty · Jun 6, 2012

SDguy said:
I guess I'm not sure what in the picture I should be looking at... that big pile of gravel looking pellets to the left of it?

Yes, lol

Honestly, I have never seen this before from him and I've had him for about 6 months.

prsnlty · Jun 6, 2012

dallas reefer said:
It's poooo

Hahah! Maybe so, but that's one BIG pile of it :bounce:

prsnlty · Jun 6, 2012

BTW Dallas Reefer... How is Dallas these days? I miss all the LFS there so much!

dallas reefer · Jun 6, 2012

prsnlty said:
Hahah! Maybe so, but that's one BIG pile of it :bounce:

Haha. Yeah. I say it's that cause MY cucumber lays a pile that I'd be proud of.

lol. Not much bigger than that.

dallas reefer · Jun 6, 2012

prsnlty said:
BTW Dallas Reefer... How is Dallas these days? I miss all the LFS there so much!

Yeah. Dallas is .....well...wet! From all this weather. You'd a never thought we had a drought last year. Also, I haven't been to a lfs in a few months.(due to MY busy-ness)I think there's actually a few more lfs I've seen, than last year.

Lazys Coral House · Jun 6, 2012

That is what non filter feeding cucumbers do. Eat sand, digest the algae, bacteria and cynao off of it and then poo the now nice clean sand back out

dallas reefer · Jun 6, 2012

So that's SANDY poooo? Ok.

orlando809 · Jun 7, 2012

lazylivin said:
That is what non filter feeding cucumbers do. Eat sand, digest the algae, bacteria and cynao off of it and then poo the now nice clean sand back

Agreed-i have 2 cucumbers in my tank

Degener8 · Jun 7, 2012

Its definately poop
My cuc does it constantly

prsnlty · Jun 7, 2012

LOL, I never saw it do this before... and with all the critters I've had, I never had a cucumber either. At first I thought it was poo then read something that make me wonder otherwise. Haha!

Dallas Reefer, I'm glad you're getting rain this year! I know how it can be there. Between Dallas and San Antonio I've lived in Texas 22 years... I do miss all the LFS, I now have to drive no less than 45 minutes to get to the closest one

dallas reefer · Jun 7, 2012

@prsnlty-

Rain gives me a day off from my business to take care of REEF business! Although too much rain sucks.

Oh yeah. Do those yellow cucumbers give off toxins when they die. If they die?

GrouperStupor · Jun 7, 2012

So I guess he is not laying eggs, he's laying cable /rimshot

What type of cucumber is that?

I will also ask...Can they be poisonous like the spiny and apples?

prsnlty · Jun 7, 2012

dallas reefer said:
@prsnlty-

Rain gives me a day off from my business to take care of REEF business! Although too much rain sucks.

Oh yeah. Do those yellow cucumbers give off toxins when they die. If they die?

I was told that they don't but like with anything that dies you should remove it promptly due to it causing high nitrates.

Too much rain in Texas sucks! Little to no drainage there. San Antonio is even worse than Dallas. Clay soil and no storm drains

It's been raining a lot here too but we really need it. The lakes here are down 7 feet.

fosin said:
So I guess he is not laying eggs, he's laying cable /rimshot

What type of cucumber is that?

I will also ask...Can they be poisonous like the spiny and apples?

The guy I bought it from said it's a White ( Holothuroidea) cucumber. The color from white to light brown. Mine happens to be yellow. No it isn't poisonous.

GrouperStupor · Jun 7, 2012

Interesting. I've never run across one of those. I like it. Reminds me of the ones I used to find in the ocean when I was a kid.

I looked up the info on my Tiger Tail. It's in the same family. Doesn't look the same though.