Thelenota ananas Thelenota ananas Thelenota ananas, also known as pineapple sea cucumber, oloturia ananas, tripang, prickly skin cucumber, pointed teat sea cucumber, armoured sea cucumber, giant sea cucumber, sand fish or prickly redfish, is a species of sea cucumber found in tropical Indo-Pacific waters from the Red Sea and East Africa to Hawaii and Polynesia. Its reddish-brown body with large and mostly branched papillae can reach up to in length. This species can be found on clean sandy bottoms of the ocean near large coral heads. It has a distinctive appearance with large pointed teats in groups of two or three all
Thelenota ananas over the surface of its body. It has numerous large tubed feet on its flat underside as well. This type of sea cucumber is edible and is considered a delicacy in the Far East countries. Due to intense commercial exploitation, the population of "T. ananas" has declined by 80-90% in at least 50% of its range; it is listed as endangered by IUCN. The worm pearlfish ("Encheliophis vermicularis") is a parasite of this species and each parasitised individual will host a male and female pair of the fish which live inside its body. Thelenota ananas Thelenota ananas, also known as