sea slugs and cucumbers

[pisaryan3108]

Hi everyone i'm gonna purchase a clean up crew this weekend and one of the cleaner packages contains a sea cucumber. Just wondering how are they for a reef tank are they worth getting? And how bout sea slugs are they good for a reef tank?

 

[Smitty]

I have both in my reef...the cucumber shifts the sand, and the sea lettuce (slug) eats various algae. The lettuce doesn't have a long life span, and they both can be toxic if they die in your tank.

 

[ZyberGoby]

+2 smitty

I had a pink&yellow sea cucumber when it died it raised hell in my tank part of why my crash lasted so long I feel, aside from the other issues I had at the time.

Just keep that in mind if you get them as good job they do of turning over sand and eating algae. The can be a seeds of crashing also. Sometimes you wont know till they are unseen for a while and things start to look iffy and test are not what they should be. So just weigh out pros and cons and go from there even though one died in my tank I'd get one again there really cool critters :D

 

[FishyReef]

I have both in my reef...the cucumber shifts the sand, and the sea lettuce (slug) eats various algae. The lettuce doesn't have a long life span, and they both can be toxic if they die in your tank.

Smitty, I'm curious about the lettuce slug being toxic. I just did a google search and didn't come up with anything definitive about them being poisonous. Do you have a reference for this? I have one in my tank that I haven't seen in awhile and am a bit concerned now.

Thanks!

 

[Smitty]

I'm not 100% sure about the sea lettuce...i was just categorizing it with the other slugs, because the op didn't give a specific species. I really don't think they are poisonous tho.

 

[d2mini]

I had 4 cucumbers in my 130g tank. Great detritus eaters.

 

[FishyReef]

I'm not 100% sure about the sea lettuce...i was just categorizing it with the other slugs, because the op didn't give a specific species. I really don't think they are poisonous tho.

Thanks for clarifying!

 

[2XAl]

we had a cucumber in our corner tank. it lasted about a week, died at some point between when i went to bed on a weeknight and got home from work the next day. i was shocked at how fast my nitrates spiked, took me a couple weeks to get everything back in check. i steer clear now.