Physical

• The sea cucumber gets its common name from its resemblance to the garden vegetable. The species range in length from less than an inch to more than 6 feet long. On one end of its body is the mouth, which has at least 10 tentacles attached nearby. It's an invertebrate, meaning it doesn't have a spine, and is soft to the touch. The sea cucumber moves across the ocean floor by using five rows of tubed feet. With more than 1,200 known species of sea cucumbers, the creature can be found in a variety of colors and patterns, including yellow, red, dark green and brown.
  
  

Feeding

• When it's time to eat, the sea cucumber positions itself on the ocean floor near a current. This flowing water brings a steady supply of algae, waste material and particles right to the sea cucumber, which catches it using its tentacles. It will then put one tentacle in its mouth to eat the catch while leaving the others in the current. After it's finished, it puts the cleaned tentacle back to catch more food and starts eating off another tentacle. The creature has been known to spend hours going through this cycle.
  
  

Defense

• The sea cucumber has a few ways to defend itself, including through self-evisceration. When the creature is attacked, it shoots out some of its internal organs at the predator to distract it. If the sea cucumber escapes, it will grow back the organs it lost within a few months. It can also secrete a gluelike thread substance in self-defense. This secretion, called cuverian tubules, is very sticky. When it gets on the predator, it's usually too distracted to continue hunting the sea cucumber.
  
  

Reproduction

• Sea cucumbers typically breed sexually, although with little contact between them. When it's time to spawn, the sea cucumbers travel to the top of the reef to release gametes, or reproductive cells, into the passing currents. The male and female gametes will mix in the ocean waters to produce sea cucumber larvae. The larvae will travel in the water about 10 or 40 days before coming to a rest on the sea floor and developing into mature sea cucumbers.