Leopard sea cucumbers protect themselves from predators by shooting sticky threads from their bodies to entangle and confuse predators and give them time to escape.
Leopard sea cucumbers can also mutilate their own bodies and reveal their toxic internal organs, later regrowing missing body parts after the danger subsides.
Bohadschia argus, the leopard sea cucumber, is a species of marine invertebrate in the family Holothuriidae.
It is the type species of the genus Bohadschia; Jaeger, 1833.
All sea cucumbers possess an extremely potent poison, known as holothurin.
This is concentrated in the socalled Cuvierian tubules, threadlike appendages in the end of the gut.
Sea cucumbers are scavengers that feed on small food items in the benthic zone (seafloor), as well as plankton floating in the water column.
Algae, aquatic invertebrates, and waste particles make up their diet.
They eat with tube feet that surround their mouths.
Sea cucumbers exhibit sexual and asexual reproduction.
In natural conditions, growth rate varies according to the location.
In Hokkaido, the northern part of Japan, sea cucumbers take 3.5-4.5 years to grow to 100 g and 5-6 years to grow to 200 g.
In Aomori, southern Hokkaido, it takes almost 1-2 years less to reach each of these size categories.
Sea cucumbers (Holothuroidea) eject parts of the gut in order to scare and defend against potential predators such as crabs and fish.
The organs are regenerated in a few days by cells in the interior of the sea cucumber.
Sea cucumbers are listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, giving them the same level of protection as tigers and making poaching them illegal.