How do they help the sea floor?

They recycle nutrients like earthworms

What are Cuvierian tubules?

Sticky threads used for defense

Sea Cucumber Quiz: Spewing Guts and Ocean Floor Recycling

This sea cucumber quiz crawls across the sea floor with one of the ocean's odd recyclers. Play 10 interactive questions on their kinship with starfish, eating sand and recycling nutrients, breathing through internal respiratory trees, expelling organs to distract predators, sticky threads called Cuvierian tubules, regrowing body parts, pearlfish that live inside them and their trade as a delicacy.

Start Sea Cucumber Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Kin
Which animals are sea cucumbers related to?
Diet
What do many sea cucumbers eat?
Role
How do they help the sea floor?
Breath
How do many sea cucumbers breathe?
Defense
What can some do when threatened?
Regrow
What happens after organs are expelled?
Threads
What are Cuvierian tubules?
Guest
Which fish sometimes lives inside sea cucumbers?
Food
Where are sea cucumbers prized as a delicacy?
Name
What is dried sea cucumber sometimes called in trade?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Which animals are sea cucumbers related to?
Answer: Starfish and sea urchins
They are echinoderms.
Q2: What do many sea cucumbers eat?
Answer: Sand and sediment
They digest the organic bits.
Q3: How do they help the sea floor?
Answer: They recycle nutrients like earthworms
Clean sand comes out.
Q4: How do many sea cucumbers breathe?
Answer: With internal respiratory trees
Water is pumped in and out.
Q5: What can some do when threatened?
Answer: Expel internal organs
Predators get distracted.
Q6: What happens after organs are expelled?
Answer: They regrow them
Regeneration takes weeks.
Q7: What are Cuvierian tubules?
Answer: Sticky threads used for defense
They tangle predators.
Q8: Which fish sometimes lives inside sea cucumbers?
Answer: Pearlfish
It shelters in their body.
Q9: Where are sea cucumbers prized as a delicacy?
Answer: Parts of Asia
Overfishing is a concern.
Q10: What is dried sea cucumber sometimes called in trade?
Answer: Trepang
It has a long trading history.

Recyclers of the Sea Floor

Sea cucumbers are echinoderms, related to starfish and sea urchins, not cucumbers. Many crawl across the sea floor eating sand and sediment, digesting the organic bits and releasing clean sand, recycling nutrients much like earthworms on land.

Many breathe with internal respiratory trees, pumping water in and out. When threatened, some species expel internal organs to distract predators, then regrow them over weeks. Others shoot out sticky threads called Cuvierian tubules that tangle attackers.

Pearlfish sometimes live inside sea cucumbers, sheltering in their bodies. Dried sea cucumber, sometimes called trepang, is prized as a delicacy in parts of Asia and has a long trading history, but overfishing threatens many populations.

What This Quiz Teaches

Ocean fans will enjoy these questions.

What sea cucumbers are
How they feed
How they breathe
How they defend themselves
Why people harvest them

Did You Know?

Some swim in the deep sea.
Tube feet help them move.
They can turn their body wall soft or stiff.
Some species are brightly colored.
Farms raise sea cucumbers in ponds.