hitchhiker-- cucumber?

[MamaJones]

I went and tried to find pictures of what I have in my tank as it is teeny tiny and I'll never get a pic as it is inside of a rock.
I believe it to be a tiger tail cucumber of a hitchhiker. What about how it emits poison if bother. I understand it is excellent to have for DSBs as we do have one...but we also have hermits...and it's said that they might bother it. what do ya'll think of it? how likely will it be bothered and kill everything?

also, since I haven't seen but a corner of what looks like a hairy spiked worm how likely is it that it is this animal as it is inside of a rock we got our leather on and not the sand?

 

[gasman]

Have you looked at bristial worms. They are hairy and pink and purple.

 

[d.french]

sounds like you have a bristle worm if its real small. i keep sand sifting cucumbers in both my tanks and one tank has hermit crabs and they do not bother them, i also have one of those foot long pink cucumbers also, daughter just had to have it since its pink.

 

[Bifferwine]

If it is a cucumber, some like them, some don't. I'm in the HATE THEM category. They live in the sandbed and if they die, they remain in the sandbed. You can't find their bodies if they die, so they just pollute your tank. I had a cucumber die in my old tank, since it was in the sand, I couldn't find its body. And my nitrates spiked to 150+ after it died, and no matter how many water changes I did, I couldn't get them down, because the cucumber was slowly rotting away in the sand and constantly decaying.

 

[cgoodman381]

They work well for some people, I think you need a larger tank. Joe Weatherson (our local club pres) swears by em.

 

[kimoy]

I have a black cucmber in my tank for almost a year now and loved it. it keeps my sand stirred and clean. I also have a lot snails and crabs mixed, I think they are in the 200 range if I am not mistaken. I used to have a sea hare for a year but it died when I was on vacation and I never worried about the water. nothing was bothered by the dead sea hare which I never saw the remains of it. I also had fish died in my tank and left it in there for the scavengers. I haven't done a single water change since January and had a couple fish and another sea hare(new one died after a week it was added) died and left it in the tank and everything is doing great. But don't take me on this, maybe I am just lucky to have a good system, who knows. but I sure do know that if something dies in my tank it is not being removed.

 

[MamaJones]

well...I don't really know what it is...because I did only see it for a brief moment, but I thought bristleworms looked flatter? and not pink right? this was pinkish with yellow fuzzy triangle like stuff. I *think* it looks just like that pic.
But, I could be wrong.

Should I bother to investigate more? I've been looking at the rock it was in, but you know how things can get lost in the tank. I'd really rather avoid the whole tank destruction part about cucumbers though...what are the chance that something ate/will eat it?

 

[Bifferwine]

To my knowledge, there really isn't anything that will eat a cucumber...

 

[gasman]

I would try to keep eye on it and take some pics. bristleworms don't like the lights so look during the lights off time to see if you see it then..

 

[MamaJones]

okay, I was so tired when I wrote that last post of mine...
Gasman did say that bristleworms can be pink...sorry for the oversite. And I guess I just have to take my chances on whatever kind of thing this is, because I haven't seen it yet. Maybe I'll never see it again? I haven't seen any worms while the lights are off except the one that lives on my flowerpot coral. I even pulled it off yesterday and moved the coral...it's back on there today. silly worms!

Thanks for the input everybody!