Sea Urchin question

razorvines

razorvines

Member
Yeah the wife was pretty upset, but I still couldn't get her to try an Urchin Sushi roll!! LOL
I will post a pics of the other ones when I get a chance. They are really cute. The bigger ones are just starting to get their second stripe, which I guess is a sign of them being black Onyx Percs.
 
Boomer

Boomer

Reef Sanctuary's Mr. Wizard
That urchin is one of the Arbaciidae, Arbacia sp/. They have been know to eat almost anything to include fish, sponges, coral polyps, etc... They are mostly herbivores. Duesxx is correct /say, that they are not really after the coralline but grazing what is on its surface, which sends up removing the coralline. It is like you finding a bowl of cereal. Well, you are not after the cereal but the blue berries in it so you end up eating the whole bowl :) This is similar to some sand sifting fish, where some like to claim that they eat Diatoms, as the browned sand from the diatoms is removed. In short, the Diatoms are really going right out the gills opens just like the sand. They are really feeding on the organism in the sand that may be attached to the Diatoms. Some urchins end up being sand makers from their grazing, called Bioerosion.
 
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greene394

Member
Is Bioerosion good?? My sea urchin poop looks just like sand or CC. Really dont notice it unless its on the rocks, coral, or comming out! lol...just wondering.
 
l3fty999

l3fty999

Member
Octoman said:
I have a long spined urchin and a tuxedo urchin. They "poop" alot, but it looks more like little white pellets that I'm guessing are mostly calcium carbonate from the coraline algae. The long spine has been a model citizen in my 55, never knocked anything over, never hurt any fish or corals. He eats a lot of coraline, but it grows back faster than he eats it, so there is always plenty. He spawns about once every couple months - makes great food for the filter feeders...

The tuxedo is in a little 10 gallon, he's pretty small for now and seems to get enough to eat in there - it grows back fully in an area before he makes it back over there. He'll be moving into the bigger tank (which will hopefully be upgraded to a 90) after we move. He did eat a firefish goby, the goby appeared healthy, I'd had it for over a year. I don't know if it died mysteriously or if the urchin caught it sleeping and nabbed it with his tube feet. He ate the whole goby body in a day.

I have read accounts of pencil urchins catching and eating fish, but never a tuxedo, so who knows?
Click to expand...

I myself have a tuxedo urchin, it's very well behaved... in fact, I transfer it to my various tanks for algae control.

Aaron
 
seafansar

seafansar

Well-Known Member
I have two black urchins. They were tiny when I first got them, about the size of a nickel. About a year later they are about 2.5". They knocked over the corals in my reef tank, so I put them in my 20 gallon. They don't seem to add much to the bioload.

You know there's a majano anemone on the rock in the first picture right? It's on the upper right of the rock. If you haven't already, you should get rid of it.
 
razorvines

razorvines

Member
Here's a pic of the other little guys we have left. The one that got killed by the sea urchin was a lot smaller than either of these.

IMG_5252_rs.jpg
 
novanosis

novanosis

Member
seafansar said:
I have two black urchins. They were tiny when I first got them, about the size of a nickel. About a year later they are about 2.5". They knocked over the corals in my reef tank, so I put them in my 20 gallon. They don't seem to add much to the bioload.

You know there's a majano anemone on the rock in the first picture right? It's on the upper right of the rock. If you haven't already, you should get rid of it.
Click to expand...

Shhhh!! She paid a big chunk for the coraline algae that came on it. :banghead:
 
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greene394

Member
The piece of rock all the coraline is on is not in that pic. Yes I know I have those blessed majano anemones in our tank. They really are not bad YET!! I know if we dont take care of them they are gonna get worse. Just trying to figure out the most effective way of doing it. Our urchin has grew a good bit since we got him. He eats and poops all the time. And my coraline still is not comming back on our big rock as aggressive as I was hopping it would. We are keeping our calicum and mag up so it can grow, we have growth, just not as much as I would like. And Novanosis, what is wrong with paying for a rock with lots of coraline, huh??? Joking.... Its a beautiful rock, IT HAD LOTS, of red, pink, purple on it till urchin got ahold of it. Still like my urchin, he adds a lot to my tank.
 
novanosis

novanosis

Member
greene394 said:
The piece of rock all the coraline is on is not in that pic. Yes I know I have those blessed majano anemones in our tank. They really are not bad YET!! I know if we dont take care of them they are gonna get worse. Just trying to figure out the most effective way of doing it. Our urchin has grew a good bit since we got him. He eats and poops all the time. And my coraline still is not comming back on our big rock as aggressive as I was hopping it would. We are keeping our calicum and mag up so it can grow, we have growth, just not as much as I would like. And Novanosis, what is wrong with paying for a rock with lots of coraline, huh??? Joking.... Its a beautiful rock, IT HAD LOTS, of red, pink, purple on it till urchin got ahold of it. Still like my urchin, he adds a lot to my tank.
Click to expand...

LOL, nah I was being funny because the "rock" you paid for had come with not just coraline but that dang majano...

I am mean I know.
 
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cabin38

New Member
I have(had) two urchins like the picture above. One is purple and one is white. They started going after my pulsing xenia and ate it all the way down to nubs. It kept growing back. They did this several times and the last time they ate it so nothing was left. That was when they got a new home in the refugium. They were neat in the tank but not when they ate the xenia...
 
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BLAKEJOHN

Active Member
Most urchins are not reef safe. Most are bulldozers knocking things over, eating just about anything that they walk across. The longspine urchins is the most graceful and I dont know of any accounts that it has eaten fish or corals. That is what I have. I also had a few rocks that were loose and fish swiming by would cause them to wobble, but my longspine never knocked them over (I have fixed those rock anyways just incase). Yeah and poop....evertime I look at it, it seems as if it is poopin'.
 
NanoNewbie

NanoNewbie

Member
I have 2 urchins in my 30gal reef and they dont seem to bother anything. Once in while they might knock over something but not often. They do good job on algae. One is a rock boring urchin and only comes out at night and other is a pure white urchin spends all day cruisin the tank eating algae, I feed them dried sea weed to supplement diet.
SeaUrchin.jpg
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