Redfish Pinkfish - Sea Cucumber

Scientific Name: Thelenota ananas

Species: Stichopodidae

Other Names: Echinoderms, Oloturia ananas, Tripang, Pineapple Cucumber, Prickly Cucumber, Prickly Skin Sea Cucumber, Prickly Redfish, Prickly Redfish Sea Cucumber, Pointed Teat Sea Cucumber, Armoured Sea Cucumber, Giant Sea Cucumber, Sand fish. Pineapple Sea Cucumber

Description

Distinctive appearance with large pointed teats in groups of two or three all over the body surface and numerous large tube feet on the flat underside. 

Some sea cucumbers crawl around on the bottom slowly filtering sand through their tentacles to gather food, while others spread their tentacles above them to capture plankton. A number of sea cucumbers feed nocturnally while others feed by day.
There are sea cucumbers that hardly move while others are more active often perching on tall sponges to feed.
Sea cucumbers often attract hitch-hikers like shrimps and crabs that crawl over their skin, also pearlfish that enter via their anus. The Spawning behavior tends to be seasonal. Many sea cucumbers on the Great Barrier Reef spawn during the mass spawning events in November. During spawning, sea cucumbers travel to the top of reef structures and release their "embryos" into the waves. Embryos and larvae could be incubated by the female. The larva of sea cucumbers is very distinctive and is called an auricularia larva. It swims for about 10-40 days before settling on the bottom and metamorphosing into a baby sea cucumber. They are literally shaped like a cucumber with a long, muscular, flexible body. They are a mouth at one end, and a anus at the other end. They have modified tube feet located around the mouth that are used for collecting food. They come in many sizes and can reach lengths up to two feet. They have leathery skin too. They also have one stretched gonad.They shoot their guts out at predators to escape.They have a random spawning period.

Depth Range: 5-40m

Maximum Length: 75cm

Distribution: Indo-Pacific

Habitat: Pineapple sea cucumbers have been found to be all over the world. They are found on sea beds of sand. They are a lot of times found in coral reefs too. They tend to travel alone and mimic plants.