Orange Sea Cucumber (Cucumaria miniata)

Orange sea cucumbers peaking out from a crevice (photo credit: Lauren Rice)

Orange sea cucumber hiding in mussel bed among sea anemones and sea stars (photo credit: Katie Corliss)

Description: Orange sea cucumbers come in colors ranging from orange to red to brown or to pale pink. These are cucumber-shaped animals that can reach lengths of 10-25 cm. Along their bodies, they have five rows of tube feet that they use to move around and feed with. On one end of their bodies, they have bright orange, branched, bushy tentacles, which is sometimes all you can see as the rest of the animal’s body hides tucked away in rock crevices. These bushy tentacles on the front are surrounding its mouth and called oral tentacles.

Habitat: These creatures live in the intertidal zone, and they prefer areas with hard substrate, whether it be a rocky area or mussel bed. They range geographically from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to southern California.

Diet: The orange sea cucumber uses its oral tentacles to catch food, which includes plankton and detritus (bits of decomposed organisms), out of the water column. One well-known predator of orange sea cucumbers is the leather star as well as other sea stars.

Tide Pool Tidbits:

  • Orange sea cucumbers can live for up to 5-10 years!

Reference: Walla Walla University, Animalia