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Physical Description

Thelenota ananas(pineapple sea cucumber) is a species of sea cucumber characterized by its large size, warm colors, and pointed, star-shaped teats covering the entire body, grouped in rows of 2 or 3. Their body is reddish-orange in color and the teats are slightly darker. They can reach a length of 700 mm with a weight of between 3 kg to 6 kg, and have numerous large tube feet on the flat ventral side of their body, that are visible in Figure 3 (James 2001). T. ananasis a slow growing organism (Purcell et al.2016).

Environment

The environment of T. ananasis found in clean, sandy bottoms of lagoons with a depth of up to 30 m, or in slabs near large coral heads and coral rubble. They are typically located in seas surrounding India and in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia (James 2001). The average water temperatures they thrive in are between 26-27°C (Purcell et al.2016). The individuals are large and found dispersed in low densities (Conand 1993).

Behavioral Description

T. ananasare widely distributed, but tracking these organisms in a non-invasive and accurate way is somewhat difficult. Mark and recapture methods can be difficult because their bodies are extendable, so measuring their body has proven difficult to scientists since the numbers are ever-changing. The body wall of T. ananascannot be tagged because it affects the growth of the organism, and are later shed off altogether. Scratching marks into the body wall induces short-term trauma and does not last long enough for mark and recapture efforts. These methods all harm T. ananasin some form, so the best non-invasive way to track their growth and traveling is through photographs.

While generally considered sedentary, they actually have large tube feet under their body, and are actually highly mobile creatures and widely distributed. They are slow growing, but also longer lived and have lower mortality rates. T. ananasis diurnally active, meaning they’re active during the day.

T. ananasplays an important role in coral reef ecosystems by recycling nutrients, bioturbating sediments, buffering sea water from ocean acidification to local scales, prey to a range of predators, and acting as a host for symbiotic biota (Purcell et al. 2016)

Parasites

T. ananas acts as a host to parasites identified as small siphonostome copepods within the genus Nanaspis. Arthur G. Humes of Boston University’s Marine Program published research in 1973 that identified three new siphonostomes found onT. ananas. The research was conducted by collected and isolating T. ananas, washing them with 5% ethyl alcohol in sea water, and then passing a very fine mesh net through the wash water to collect the parasites. The findings show most of the parasites collected, across all T. ananas, were mostly females. It was also found that all three of these newly discovered species could occur on the same host at the same time, and are very similar in structure, so could be theorized that these three evolved from a common ancestor that was also associated with T. ananasin the past. As many as 847 adult parasites were collected from one single specimen. An example of Arthur’s drawing of one of the newly defined parasites is show in Figure 4 and Figure 5 (Humes 1973).

Predation

Thelenota feeds exclusively on calcareous alga Halmedasp. (James 2001)

As a Food Source

T. ananasis one of the most popular edible sea cucumber species consumed in China, and some other Southeast Asian countries. Research published in 2014 by Long Yu et al. examined the chemical properties of this organism that makes it such a delicacy. They found that they contained a polysaccharide that is present in brown algae and sea cucumbers called Fucoidan, that contains L-fucose and sulphate groups, which is a primary component aiding their popularity. Consumption of T. ananasprovides health benefits such as antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, anti-proliferative, anti-coagulant, and anti-viral effects (Yu et al.2014). Furthermore, sea cucumbers contain saponins, which can help regulate cholesterol metabolism, alleviate the development of obesity, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes (Han et al.  2018).