Has anyone else seen this in their aquarium?

[Otter_rs]

These are some pictures (sorry they are not real clear. They were taken with my phone)of one of my cucumbers reproducing asexually. I was wondering how common or uncommon this is.

This is the healed front half. You can see the small cone on the end. That is the new back half. I don't have a good pic. of the back half.

 

[Otter_rs]

Really? No comment on this one? Even if you haven't seen it before, has anyone heard of it happening? I've been keeping reef aquariums with cucumbers for a long time and was pretty shocked to see it.

 

[slugwall]

I think it's really cool and wish you had sharper pics but... I have never seen anything like this...

 

[Otter_rs]

Yeah, I could kick myself for not having my Nikon handy to get good pics. I was late to be somewhere when I saw it happening and I figured I could be back in time to get better pics. but it was over and both halves hid within the rocks for a month before I saw them again. It took them 3 months to start feeding in the sand again.

 

[Otter_rs]

So.... I'm guessing this is uncommon then?
After doing some research after it happened I found out that asexual reprodiction in seacucumbers was undocumented in nature until it was witnessed in captivity. It dididnt say when or where it was witnessed.

 

[Mike&Terry]

Interesting... I wonder what triggered it. Our oldest detritus eating sea cucumber is about a foot long and we've had it for about 8 years and it has never done that.

-Terry

 

[Otter_rs]

This cucumber was introduced about 5 months prior to the split. It was about 10" (not stretched) when it split. I had introduced another at the same time but it was almost 2 inches smaller. It didn't split. The system is a 500gl. mostly sps reef. It is by far the most stable system I've ever created with light and temp seasonal variations. I've had a few corals spawn in the system with planular larval growth. I also have a hand full of fish breeding in that system. My snails trippled in population before I introduced a yellow Coris Wrasse and a Sixline Wrasse. Now baby snails never survive long. I've never had such a wide variety if animals breeding in one system. I'm thinking it was just all the right things coming together.

 

[KSzegi]

I've had one split in my tank also ..... was about the same 10" size as yours. My system doesn't have any seasonal variation of temp and/or light to trigger the split so I just assumed it had reached the right size .....:wink:

 

[Otter_rs]

Was yours a black cucumber as well, or was it a different species?

 

[KSzegi]

Yes, it was a black cucumber also!

 

[Otter_rs]

That's great... Can you give me some info on the system it was in? I'd really like to figure out as much as possible about why this may have happened(other than the obvious) and possibly how to trigger it again.

 

[Mike&Terry]

Hmmm. Ours is mustard brown colored.

 

[KSzegi]

That's great... Can you give me some info on the system it was in? I'd really like to figure out as much as possible about why this may have happened(other than the obvious) and possibly how to trigger it again.

Happy to, just let me know what details I might be able to help with .... basics are 180 gallon mixed reef tank; tbs live rock and sand (so coarse); coralife salt, lit with outer orbit 3x150 hqi (ab 10k) and 4 pc actinics - halides on for 9 hours, actinics on for 12. PH was pretty stable at 8.4, kh 8-9, temp 76-78.....

Several have now made the transfer to the new tank a few months back - and one into a smaller tank ..... so will be keeping a closer eye out to see if they split again since a couple have reached that 10" size range again.

 

[KSzegi]

Hmmm. Ours is mustard brown colored.

He's kinda freaky! :wink: Mine is definitely black ..... and doesn't have as many spikes ..... will see if I can get a pic of him - gotta say, thats one thing that I don't have a picture of from the tanks!!

 

[Otter_rs]

My original thought was it's food source. I had three cucumbers, three sand sifting stars, and a Diamond Goby feeding in the sand bed. The base of the aquarium is 3'x7'. And I would say about 1/4 of that is covered by rockwork. In my experience, most things don't reproduce unless there is abundant food present. How old was your sand bed and how many animals did you have eating out of it?

 

[KSzegi]

The sand bed at the time of the split was about 6-8 months old - but it was "real" live sand from tbs - so far more mature than the average newer sand bed. I had 3 cucumbers, 3-4 large serpent starts, numerous micro-brittles .... and some bristles etc. When I had researched a bit at the time mine split - what I had read was that the asexual reproduction may actually have been triggered by a low food supply - they hypotheses was apparently that two smaller cucumbers would take less food than one large - and that asexual reproduction took less energy than a spawn. But that said, I didn't see a whole lot of actual research behind it - seemed more like a guess....:wink:

 

[Otter_rs]

That's great info, and makes some sense with the fact that the two halves that I have stopped feeding in the sand bed for almost 4 months after the split. On the other hand, my other cucumber grew pretty fast throughout all of this. It's also very interesting that my sand bed was close to the same age as yours. It was well seeded, but rather young. I was just thinking that because of the large surface area they never overgrazed anywhere.

 

[Mike&Terry]

The sand bed at the time of the split was about 6-8 months old - but it was "real" live sand from tbs - so far more mature than the average newer sand bed. I had 3 cucumbers, 3-4 large serpent starts, numerous micro-brittles .... and some bristles etc. When I had researched a bit at the time mine split - what I had read was that the asexual reproduction may actually have been triggered by a low food supply - they hypotheses was apparently that two smaller cucumbers would take less food than one large - and that asexual reproduction took less energy than a spawn. But that said, I didn't see a whole lot of actual research behind it - seemed more like a guess....:wink:

That makes sense and it could very well explain why our large one has not split. We have a lot of fish in our system which are fed 3x a day. Needless to say, there is no shortage of nutrients in our sand bed. Our main sand cleaners are (3) sea cucumbers and (3) fighting conchs. They are work-horses for sure and the sea cuc's are the only critters we've ever had that will mow thru cyano and dino's. Needless to say, they keep our sand bed clean and free of those plagues.

 

[fraghunter]

looks like your cucumber is splitting very cool must be happy

 

[Otter_rs]

There is obviously a lack of info on this subject and all we can do is speculate. For the fact that out of all the people who have viewed this thread only two of us have seen it happen. Not a very good sampling. Not to mention, it was most likely the same species that it was witnessed on. So we are not even sure if all cucumbers do this, and if they do, do they do it for the same reasons. Mike&Terry, I've kept the kind you have over the years and had them get that big with no splitting in a variety of different systems. I think the kind you have are a little more common than the black ones within the aquarium trade. This was the first time I tried the black ones and, well, this happened. I'm not even sure where either of these species are collected. So many unknown variables.... I will try and find more credible info if I can and share it. In the mean time, I'd still like to hear opinions on the subject.