Stichopodiidae Family of Spiky Sea Cucumbers

Three Spiky Sea Cucumbers of the Stichopodiidae Family can be found in this website:

Spiky Sea Cucumbers of the Stichopodiidea Family, like Starfish and Sea Urchins are in the Phylum Echinodermata. Echinoderms (meaning spiny skin) are characterized by a larval stage with bilateral symmetry and an adult stage with radial (5-rayed) symmetry. They are unsegmented and their disc may be cucumber, sphere or star shaped. They have a water vascular system, tube feet, and a complete digestive system, but they lack eyes, a head, nervous system, or excretory system. They are found only in marine environments.

Spiky Sea Cucumbers of the Stichopodiidea Family are in the Class Holothuroidea, meaning that they lack arms, and they have a soft body wall and branched tentacles around their mouth utilized to capture food.

Spiky Sea Cucumbers of the Stichopodiidea Family are in the Order Synallactida, indicative that they have a flattened ventral surface and a square or angular cross section. They have larger, fleshy, cone-shaped projections on their bodies, which give rise to their common name, mixed in with much smaller papillae. They have 20 tentacles around their mouth. Spiky Sea Cucumbers tend to be medium to large in size, with some having a maximum of 2 m (6 feet 7 inches) in length.

Spiky Sea Cucumbers reside in in bedrock, mud, rock, and sand, habitats from the intertidal zone to depths exceeding 1,700 m (5,576 feet). The majority are found in shallow water. They are generally found in more protected areas, where water movement will not sweep their food away. They are depositional feeders that crawl along the bottom, using their sticky tentacles to collect detritus and other organic matter, such as bacteria and fungus. This method of feeding redistributes sediment, and therefore contributes to the general ecology. Spiky Sea Cucumbers lack the Cuvierian organs that release a sticky substance of some other Sea Cucumber Families. They are preyed upon by fish, marine mammals, and starfish. They do have the ability to auto-eviscerate their internal organs to distract potential predators. Some members of the family have an annual cycle of auto-eviscerating their digestive tract and gonads to remove sediment build up caused by their feeding process. They regrow these organs in a matter of weeks. These Sea Cucumbers reproduce sexually, with external fertilization. The larvae are free-swimming until they settle to the bottom and become benthic.

The Stichopodiidea are found worldwide in temperate and tropical seas. There are currently thirty-five known members of the Stichopodiidea Family of which three are found along the Pacific coast of Mexico.