---
title: Graeffe's Sea Cucumber (Pearsonothuria graeffei)
scientific_name: Pearsonothuria graeffei
common_name: Graeffe's Sea Cucumber
taxon: Sea cucumber
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2026-08-05T23:57:33.634Z
updated: 2026-08-20T17:09:45.992Z
tags: Graeffe's Sea Cucumber, Pearsonothuria graeffei, Sea cucumber, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/sea-cucumber/graeffes-sea-cucumber
---

# Graeffe's Sea Cucumber (*Pearsonothuria graeffei*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sea cucumber (*Holothuroidea*)
- **Size:** up to 45 cm
- **Depth:** 2-30 m
- **Diet:** Detritivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Hard reef surfaces and coral rubble
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- about 24 black flower-like tentacles
- cream to gray body with dark speckling
- feeds openly in daylight on hard bottom
- juveniles white with black and yellow bands

A distinctive sea cucumber to about 45 cm (18 in), cream to pale gray with dark speckling, and unmistakable when feeding: around twenty-four black tentacles open like small flowers at the mouth and dab methodically at the surface in front of it. Unlike most of the family it works in daylight, and it feeds on hard bottom rather than sand, wiping the algal film off coral rock.

The young are a separate spectacle. Juveniles are boldly patterned in white with black and yellow markings, closely resembling the toxic nudibranchs of the genus Phyllidia that crawl the same reefs - a mimicry that buys a soft, slow-moving animal some protection until it is large enough to be a poor mouthful. The resemblance fades as the animal grows and the adult coloring takes over. It is common on reef along this coast, usually met draped across coral rubble in the open, and is one of the few sea cucumbers a daytime diver can reliably expect to see actually feeding rather than lying inert.

## Also known as

- **English:** Blackmouth Sea Cucumber, Blackspotted Sea Cucumber, Graeffe's Sea Cucumber
- **Arabic:** Shoab
- **Hebrew:** חקיין-חשופיות יבלתי
- **French:** Holothurie léopard, Holothurie rayée, Holothurie tiretée
- **Italian:** Oloturia a chiazze nere, Oloturia a macchie nere, Oloturia di Graeffe
- **Japanese:** クロエリナマコ, クロテナマコ, クロテナマコ／クロエリナマコ
- **Chinese:** 格皮氏海參
- **Russian:** Голотурия Грефе
- **BIS:** Flaoasis
- **HIN:** Nool attai
- **ID:** Bintik merah, Gomboyok
- **MLG:** Zanga somotse, Tigre
- **TH:** ปลิงทะเลขาวจุดดำ
- **VI:** Ñoät daûi ñaù, Daâu ñaù, Ñoät daûi

## Scientific synonyms

- *Bohadschia drachi* Cherbonnier, 1954
- *Bohadschia graeffei* (Semper, 1868)
- *Holothuria Gräffei* Semper, 1868
- *Stichopus troschelii* Müller, 1854

## Range

Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Red Sea

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/sea-cucumber/graeffes-sea-cucumber)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*