Sea Cucumbers - Vacuum Cleaners of the Sea!

Sea Cucumbers are interesting creatures. Yup, they are animals, and not plants or--as their name might imply--vegetables. Sea cucumbers are relatives of the starfish and sea urchins, of the phylum Echinodermata--Echinoderms have radiating parts--and are also known as Holothurids of the Class Holothuroidea. Although they occur in almost any of the world's oceans, they are extremely common in tropical areas--particularly on the coral reef flats.

And they come in all shapes and sizes (and COLORS)!

Although most folks will be familiar with the common black or brown sea cucumber as shown in the picture in this module, you will learn that sea cucumbers can look like decorative pillows such as the candy-striped specimen and the multi-tufted specimen shown elsewhere on this Squidoo lens. Depending on which marine biology expert you talk to, there are about 1300 known species,  and you can find the sea cucumbers living in all of the world's oceans.

Sea Cucumbers are bottom dwellers--and eat whatever small things they can filter through their tentacles and mouth in the water and sand near the sea floor. They eat organic material--whether planktonic plant or animal life, bits of broken coral, bits of broken sea weed, fish and marine animal excrement, and so on. They pass this stuff through their bodies and excrete the essentially "turned" sand, acting much in the same way that terrestrial earthworms digest and process the organic materials in the soil.