is it a sea slug or sea cucumber!!!

[jellyfish]

Hi all, I bought a sea cumcumber (i think) last week... it station at my tank corner for 1 week + without moving much... today, I found a cauliflower loo alike stuff pop out from the end of this creature!!!! i never know sea cucumber have this charatristic ??? is it common? I dont think it is expelling it internal organs due to stress because this this pop out doesnt look like any internal organs.... I've posted 2 picture for the expert out there to help.... a bit poor taken but stll can see the whole thing...

[jellyfish]

another picture...

[blueheaven]

that's a cucumber

[jellyfish]

that's a cucumber

.... but why is the cauliflower look alike stuff came out from the end? sign of stress??

[Jun Hong]

I believe it is a filter-feeder sea cucumber instead of those sand cleaning sea cucumber. That means it is feed on plankton.

[jellyfish]

shit! .....

[Qchan]

Hi there,

im not sure what it is but from what i see, its the same breed as sea cucumbers and sea apples, been reading alot about them cos i have a sea apple lol. The "cauliflower antennas" are actually tentacles that have sticky substance attached to them so that they can collect pytoplankton and feed themselves. Onli think you wanna look out for is that theses things are famous for their cuke nukes, which happens when they are extremely irritated or when they are forced to defend their lives(also cases when they dying). These buggers will release toxins capable of wiping out a tank Go read up on them, if i were you and i want to be careful i'll think of a way to get rid of it hehe.

Just my little bit of research hehe, well cant help read up on it since i gotten my sea apple

[Hondace]

Qchan & Jun Hong r right.

It is a filter feeding cuke. IMO, no use at all.........that's my personal experience. the tentacles will come out when the lights r dimmed or off to feed on plankton.

I have one filter feeder red cuke & one tiger tail cuke which clears the sand bed. the filter feeder will position itself near the current so that it can feed on floating plankton. If u r also feeding plankton to yr corals, it will be fine.Otherwise, u may wanna give it away b4 it dies.