How To Safely Remove a Sea Cucumber?

Question

I've had a tiger tail cucumber getting along quite well in my tank for about six months. One unfortunate night, my wife decided to [quite amateurishly] rearrange the tank and drastically spiked the parameters. If that wasn't bad enough, it stressed out the cucumber and he released the toxin they're notorious for and killed just about everything.

I would now like to remove this risk, but I'm afraid of stressing him out in the process. I would like to keep it alive (so I can resell it), but they're nocturnal. I can catch him quite easily at night but I need somewhere to put him. I suppose I'm open to setting up a quarantine tank to be safe, but I'd rather throw the him in my sump until morning. Either way, I don't want it going crazy on the way out. The best I can figure is to scoop him up with a cup and not expose him to air in transit. What can I do to ensure this thing doesn't foul my water again in removing it?

Answer 1

It went pretty much as I expected it to, I was just afraid to take the leap with that little death trap.

He was incredibly easy to catch at night when he was moving about in the open.

• Exposing them to air briefly is not known to cause an issue (as it does with some echinoderms
• Moving it to a quarantine tank for just one night would likely add unnecessary stress (unless the water is exactly the same).
• Make special care not to squeeze it

As far as what to do with it til morning, put it in a bowl (to maintain temperature) of tank water and floated that in my sump (in case it sank). He was doing just fine in the morning and I was able to bring him to my LFS.