Mary's Monday Metazoan: It probably tickles

californicus... uhuh.

MMmmm...I like mine sliced thin with onion, creme freche and dill.

Until I clicked the link, I thought the seagrass was hair and the sea cucumber was a parasitic worm on a human body which made it even more dusturbing.

That's some interesting camouflage.

Somehow SB seems to have garbled the post before and after, and current post title thingy up top.....All I see is dots.

As to the pic, looks like a hungarian Salami gone wrong, that thing !

It can expel or absorb its internal organs and regrow them? How neat is that? What a great sci-fi idea.

I really wish people would stop eating these, thinking they have an aphrodisic affect. Just leave them alone. They're not even tasty. Go eat something nutritious.

My boyfriend and I spent Valentine's Day at the local marine conservation facility, surrounded by many a sea cucumber (though none that length.) There's one in almost all of the research and display tanks. They're great for monitoring water quality. Soon as there's a change in the water, they let you know (without dying, I might add.)

It can expel or absorb its internal organs and regrow them? How neat is that? What a great sci-fi idea.

when I was a lowly undergrad, one of the marine science profs used* to get a big kick out of bringing one of these to class and causing it to explode its guts onto a lucky front-row student.

it's like being covered by spaghetti made of glue.

very effective defense.

*until one year one of the students threatened to sue the college over the stunt. *sigh*

They're great for monitoring water quality.

being detritovores, they are also great for helping keep the bottom of the tank they are in clean, too.

Years ago, I had sea cucumber as an ingredient in Szechuan hot-and-sour soup. I can report it was flavorless, translucent, whitish coloured, and the slipperiest food I have ever eaten, including watermelon seeds and jello.

I can't imagine it would be difficult to make faux sea cucumber, (maybe out of unflavoured jello) but since I don't see the point of the real thing I'll let the opportunity pass me by.

being detritovores, they are also great for helping keep the bottom of the tank they are in clean, too.

You failed to mention that when they have a bad day and do the exploding guts trick, they kill every other fricking living thing in the tank.

BS

Wait, wait, wait... it probably tickles what part of the anatomy exactly?

This is almost as bad as the snails.

It looks like it pokes holes into skin, although I doubt that it does.

I'll let anyone else find out if it tickles, at any rate.

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p

I really wish people would stop eating these, thinking they have an aphrodisic affect. Just leave them alone. They're not even tasty. Go eat something nutritious.

My boyfriend and I spent Valentine's Day at the local marine conservation facility, surrounded by many a sea cucumber

For the aphrodisiac affect?

(though none that length.)

Ah. Reassurance can work wonders on the psyche. ;)

some people will eat anything if they think it'll improve their sex lives. Gee, I dunno... try maybe a sex manual ?

BlindSquirrel: Wow, I've played with these things and seen them slink around for months on a wet table and I've never seen them expel their guts. The defense mechanism is incredibly costly to the organism and is really only done as a last resort AFAIK.

Glen D: They have "catch collagen" in their skin, they can control the stiffness of their skin (which is never hard enough to pierce anything). One basic defense mechanism is to loosen this collagen and become soft and droopy. This can make them unattractive to some potential predators. Just hang one over your finger and watch it ooooooozzzzeee. It's pretty cool

You failed to mention that when they have a bad day and do the exploding guts trick, they kill every other fricking living thing in the tank.

actually, I've never had one do that spontaneously in any tank I've ever kept them in myself, or any tank from any of the large public aquaria I've worked with.

takes a lot of effort to get them to do it usually.

did you have one go off on you?

Can't say I've seen a sea cucumber that long. When i first saw the pic it twigged an ancient (and very well founded) childhood phobia of these nasty beasts:

http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/anth/collesi.html

- the White Stemmed Gum Moth caterpillar. Huge fat caterpillars that appear in massive swarms and have spines that sting and break off forming big painful blisters and triggering every allergy known to man, and they leave the spines sticking out of their cocoon where they remain hazardous for weeks after the moth has left. Mind you, I haven't seen one in about 30 years - I hope they're not extinct.

being detritovores, they are also great for helping keep the bottom of the tank they are in clean, too.

Some types of sea cucumbers are great at vacuuming the ocean floor too. The sea cucumber featured in the linked video doesn't have the awesome appearance of the Red California Sea Cucumber but some amusing footage was captured.

Back when I was a member of the Student Oceanography Club (through the Monterey Bay Aquarium) we got to touch one of these guys...they are ssooooo soft, and not pokey or tickly at all!

Ichthyic

did you have one go off on you?

I don't remember the circumstances! It was so long ago. My boss assured me it was doom for all the fellow creatures, I remember an exploded sea cuc, (the bright yellow guts are memorable) but no details. I had an open system on the Atlantic coast. No mean feat, what with the turbidity. I could keep things alive that the Skidaway Marine Institute couldn't.

BS