sea cucumber vs. sand sifter

[somethingphishy]

looking for a friend to aide in clean up for a 38g tank. Leaning towards a cucumber for detrius control. looking for some other reefers experiences with them.

[OnTheReef]

"All sea cucumbers are toxic" -- Julian Sprung, Reef Invertebrates

A sea cucumber was responsible for my first wipe-out. I had him for months with no problems, but during a tank move he got really upset and killed two sandsifting stars, 10 blue legged hermits, 20 astrea snails, a crocea clam, a key-hole angel...

...need I go on? Anyway, I'd go with a sand-sifter. They are amazingly efficient and very docile. You could add a couple of brittle stars for interest too.

[crzy4reefs]

i have a blk cucumber and i'm very pleased with it, i find with sand sifters the sand goes everywhere and it distrupts the corals. i'm hoping with my move that the cucumber won't give me any problems we'll see though

[mystikdragon7]

You can get a tiger cucumber, they are not toxic like many of the other types of cukes. Sand sifting stars will most likely die in small tanks because they will run out of food very fast.