If you think urchins only eat algae,think again

[Paul B]

This long spine urchin has been in my tank for quite a few years and when ever he can get it, he enjoys some clam for dessert.

I sometimes have to help him because when he approaches a piece of clam, he impales it on a spine and being he is all "thumbs" he can't get the thing off so I suck the clam off and shoot it where he can more easily get to it. This clam was a little smaller than a marble. He devoured it in a few minutes then moved along before any one noticed.





http://s258.photobucket.com/user/urchsearch/media/003_zpsv8yvgdsm.jpg.html





He is almost finished here. It takes him a while to maneuver it to his mouth but he gets it there.

 

[Uncle99]

Had one drill right through a horse crab shell, killed it, ate a lot of purple coralline algae off my rocks, not for tanks with slow or no move stuff. Will destroy it all over time. Take out the algae my snails don't get by hand

 

[Paul B]

He is drilling through the glass right now.

 

[Uncle99]

Too funny!
Remember, they are Reef Safe.....NOT
Hobbyists spend to much time and money on clean up crews and all sorts of machinery and additives. For 20 years now, just my snails and me clean up. Regular weekly water changes with great RO water leads to mostly no cleanup! But then again your LFS knows better......NOT

 

[Paul B]

I only have two animals in my clean up crew, but they do a great job.
It's one inch of manatee to 20 gallons of water.

 

[Uncle99]

Love a good sense of humor,
Cheers to you my friend

 

[subsea]

Paul,
Perhaps you should switch your cuc to blue point crabs. You can eat them after they do their job. Manatee are too rubbery.
I like pods in my cuc. Some years back, I was posting about eating Red Ogo straight out of my refugium. A chef in Kansas City asked me how I cleaned the Ogo of pods. I told him sushi. I heard him laugh in Louisiana.

I only have two animals in my clean up crew, but they do a great job.
It's one inch of manatee to 20 gallons of water.

 

[Paul B]

Never head of them

 

[Blue Space]

This long spine urchin has been in my tank for quite a few years and when ever he can get it, he enjoys some clam for dessert.

I sometimes have to help him because when he approaches a piece of clam, he impales it on a spine and being he is all "thumbs" he can't get the thing off so I suck the clam off and shoot it where he can more easily get to it. This clam was a little smaller than a marble. He devoured it in a few minutes then moved along before any one noticed.

He is almost finished here. It takes him a while to maneuver it to his mouth but he gets it there.

I had one that ate my rainbow acan to get the pellets I had just fed the coral... Guess he was hungry!! I ended up letting him go... back to the lfs.

 

[Uncle99]

Like anything in our hobby, sometimes it works and sometimes it don't every tank is a different community.
Urchins, crabs and nudi branches are unfortunately off my list as known troublemakers