What is wrong w/ sea cucumber?

[christina_webbe]

Does anyone know what is wrong with this cucumber?

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/566/130897piece_of_SC.jpg http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/566/130897good_side.jpg http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/566/130897wounded.jpg

[Paintbug]

looks like something caused it to expel its guts. this is their natural defense when being attacked. the bad news is they dont have a high rate of survival in aquariums when they do this. good news is unless something eats the flesh of the the sand sifting cukes, it wont wipe out your tank. mine did the same thing, but didnt make it. i left it in the tank for about 2 weeks. it looked like it was not getting better, and looked dead so i removed it. there was some movement when i pulled the cuke form the tank, but i figured he was a goner anyway. yours looks alot better than mine did at the begining however. its up to you if you want to wait it out and see if it gets better. i make no guarantees on the survival or if it will not harm/wipe out your tank!!

[christina_webbe]

Okay, great, just great. Should it be on the glass though? If it were dead, (this may seem stupid), wouldn't it lie on the substrate? I move my LR around alot, maybe I did something to it.

This cucumber was a hitchiker in a LR I bought with mushrooms and "buttons"(?) And a crab came with with rock as well.

Thanks for your time.

Chris

[Paintbug]

its not dead yet. thats for sure. when i removed mine, it was almost in a ball, and was just rolling along the bottom of the tank. moving the LR might have pinched him, or scared him really bad. the crab could have been the culprit as well. happen to know what kind of crab you have?

[Promethius]

As paintbug has said it's been hurt by either a rock or crab. I have 2 in my tank. The crabs hurt one (ate his face off / too many hermits) His fine today it all grew back.
The other some how got stuck in the siphon and lost his head (I dont kown how that happened) The head is still recovering in the fuge and doing well.
So give it a few months, and yours should be fine.

[drummereef]

I'd say it is hurt. My cucumbers all climbed the glass at one point or another. If it looks like an open wound, then it's not good. It would look pretty much like cooked lobster. Kind of white and stringy looking. I would monitor it closely because you don't want it dying in there. Very bad!

[christina_webbe]

I'm sorry I just got this today. My cuc was still on the glass and I figured as long as he was there he was not dead. I seems to have healed up. I prodded him along yesterday and put him on a rock. I hope it's okay.

Thank you!