Ashy Pink Sea Cucumber, Holothuria (Stauropora) fuscocinerea

 Ashy Pink Sea Cucumber, Holothuria (Stauropora) fuscocinerea. Underwater photographs taken in Bahía La Ventana, El Sargento, Baja California Sur, April 2022. Photographs courtesy of Aaron Woodrow, Juneau, Alaska. Photographs and identifications courtesy of Aaron Woodrow, Juneau, Alaska.

Phylogeny:  The Ashy Pink Sea Cucumber, Holothuria (Stauropora) fuscocinerea (Jaeger, 1833), is a member of the Holothuriidae Family of Sea Cucumbers. It is also known as the Ashen Sea Cucumber and in Mexico as Pepino de Mar Roado Ceniciento. The Holothuria Genus is one of five genera in the Holothuriidae Family, and there are twelve species in the Stauropora Sub-Genus. The species name fuscocinerea translates to “dark ashy.”

Morphology:  The Ashy Pink Sea Cucumber has an oval, cylindrical body, flattened somewhat on the underside lined with numerous small, pale tube feet utilized for locomotion, and rounded at both ends. The mouth is on the underside at the front and is surrounded by twenty short, brown, branched feeding tentacles. The anus is dark brown or black and has no anal teeth, but is surrounded by five white-tipped papillae. The skin is soft, thick and wrinkled, and covered with papillae, and often has sand adhering to it. They vary in color, being greyish or brownish dorsally and transitioning to dirty white ventrally. The majority have a series of dark bars in the transverse wrinkles. The Ashy Pink Sea Cucumber reach a maximum of 70 cm (2 feet 4 inches) in length and weigh up to 5.5 kg (12 lbs).

Habitat and Distribution: The Ashy Pink Sea Cucumber is a benthic organisms typically found in shallow water coral rubble and soft sediments and seagrass beds at depths between 3 m (10 feet) and 40 m (130 feet). They are a tropical and sub-tropical Indo-Pacific species that are found in all Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Diet:  The Ashy Pink Sea Cucumber is a detritivore that feeds at night, sifting through the sediment with its feeding tentacles, swallowing the sediment and extracting the bacteria and organic material it contains, while the sand passes on through its gut. They take shelter at night.

Predators:  The Ashy Pink Sea Cucumber possesses saponins which are distasteful and toxic to fish. They can also eject a long, sticky Cuvierian tubules from the anus to entangle and confuse enemies. They also utilize camouflage, taking on the coloration of its prey to remain cryptic while feeding on substrate.

Reproduction:  The Ashy Pink Sea Cucumber has separate sexes with each female releasing, on average, 3,000,000 million eggs into the water column that are then fertilized by the males. The larvae are pelatic and drift with the plankton. As they mature they settle to the seabed and undergo metamorphosis into juveniles.

Ecosystem interactions:  The Ashy Pink Sea Cucumber is a poorly studied and understood species. Their commensal, parasitic, and symbiotic relationships have not been documented.

Human Interactions:  The Ashy Pink Sea Cucumber is sold for human consumption at a nominal level. Otherwise that have not direct impact on human activities and seldom seen by humans. From a conservation perspective they are currently considered to be of Least Concern with a large global population.

Synonyms: Holathuria (Holothuria) fascinate, Holothuria curiosa and Holothuria fuscocinerea.