cukes

[hardlife]

anyone use cucumbers in their reef tanks. if so what kind do you use/have. im looking to add a few any ideas. its a 75 reef.

thanks
joe

[spsick]

i love my cukes, there the best workers i have. they dont disturb anything, and they're HARDY. I was re aquascaping and one ended up on my carpet and I didn't notice for an hour or 2, tossed him back in, and back to work he went!

[MNGold15]

I have a tiger tail, and he is great, does an awesome job cleaning, I have had him for probably 2 years and when he stretches out he is about 18".

[zryder]

the only thing bad about cucumbers, is when they die.. so does everything else
I had one in my 125... and when he died, the entire tank crashed. they release a heck of a lot of toxins. Im not sure why mine died, but im guessing its because he scraped himself on a rock somehow, and never completely healed.. a few days later, poof.... the only thing that survived was my lunar wrasse.
I have heard a lot of other people saying that these things are beneficial... but you are running a very big risk, because if it dies...

[David Grigor]

Me too. When it got damaged, lost every fish in the tank. Corals were fine.

IME: Risk isn't worth it. Siphoning the sandbed during water changes is going to be way more effective than a cuke anyways.......

[Irenicus]

I've heard the Holothura (spelling) Mexicana and florida are very hardy and not as potent. There is a bunch of info on RC about them.

[MNGold15]

Thats true, I have herd that the tiger tails are not toxic, so if they were to die, there really should not be much of a problem. Not sure if it is true or now, but so far I have been fine.

[David Grigor]

Mine was the standard black doodee looking one.

[zryder]

as was mine

[jquigley78]

I am quite confident that the tiger tails are not very harmfull. In my past tank, I had 2 tiger tails which led to 4 which led to 8, 16,... I dont know how many I eventually had, but they did start starving to death untill they reached the tanks limit of resources. When they died, I never noticed any problems, but I have a feeling my black banded serpent star, wasnt going hungry either.

[hypoxia]

"Standard black doodee looking one." That's a technical term, I take it? ;)