Urchins. Who is keeping them.

by ritter678 Sat 22 Jan 2011, 12:52 pm

I had a big fat pink one in my 37 gal. mantis tank for a while and it stripped every bit of coralline off the rocks. Kinda made the rock look more natural and it was fun to watch but it only lasted about 6 months. I'm thinking of adding a small pin cushion or tuxedo to my 20 gal. softy tank. Does anyone else keep urchins? What kind and what do you feed them once they eat all the coralline algae? Any problems with urchins and soft corals other than carrying loose frags around?

by ritter678 Tue 25 Jan 2011, 7:00 pm

Well since none of you talked me out of it I went and got one. Smile

by Yuma Tue 25 Jan 2011, 7:03 pm

That didn't take long. Smile

by ritter678 Tue 25 Jan 2011, 7:35 pm

Yuma wrote:That didn't take long.

I got it about 2 hours after posting that.

by BigBlue Tue 25 Jan 2011, 8:22 pm

I had just about every kind you can buy. They stripped my tank and back to the store they went. I didn't like seeing the rock without coralline. The urchin with the long black pins was my favorite. Had to watch your hands messing around in the tank though.

by dwhintson Thu 27 Jan 2011, 12:57 pm

We have had a tuxedo for about 3 months. He doesn't seem to eat the coraline algea at all. He is usually on the glass eating the algea of of it. I think he is a little on the devilish side though. I swear he enjoys picking up a crab or snail and carrying it across the tank before he drops it off.

by KMX Thu 27 Jan 2011, 1:35 pm

So cool.

by Yuma Thu 27 Jan 2011, 3:07 pm

dwhintson wrote:We have had a tuxedo for about 3 months. He doesn't seem to eat the coraline algea at all. He is usually on the glass eating the algea of of it. I think he is a little on the devilish side though. I swear he enjoys picking up a crab or snail and carrying it across the tank before he drops it off.

So....no coralline munching at all? I've been seriously interested in one of these for my 60 gallon but was concerned about my rocks being "cleaned".

by dwhintson Thu 27 Jan 2011, 3:57 pm

We have not noticed any coraline algae missing. He is not on the rocks much at all.

by ritter678 Thu 27 Jan 2011, 6:47 pm

Mine is eating nothing but coralline. He hasn't moved six inches since I got him but I can see where he is eating the coralline. To me it adds more character to the rocks instead of just solid purple. I actually had more colors on the rocks when I had the urchin before. This is the rock that I had the urchin in before. I don't know what the other colors were but it looked nice to me, and no the red was not cyano. Smile

by dwhintson Thu 27 Jan 2011, 7:02 pm

Our tuxedo is all over the tank. He has his favorite spots he visits alot. But he is everywhere.

by Yuma Thu 27 Jan 2011, 7:03 pm

Hmmm....maybe I will have to see if I can get me a little blue tuxedo. Thanks for the info!!

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