Urchin spawn

Octoman

Octoman

Well-Known Member
My diadema urchin is spawning right now. It positioned itself in the flow and sprays more out of five holes in its body every time the powerhead rotates its way. I got some photos and a video, but they're not the best quality with just the actinics on. I'll get them posted tomorrow.

Should I be concerned about water quality? It dissipates pretty fast in the current, I figured my featherdusters and donkey dung cuke would love it... My skimmer is running full blast. I don't know how long the little guy can keep it up! I was going to do a WC on Saturday anyway.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
Your filter feeders will LOVE it and your water change will help remove some left in the water column.
 
Octoman

Octoman

Well-Known Member
He stopped spawning after about 20 minutes. I'll resize the video and get a couple more pics up tomorrow, but here's one for now....

urchin.jpg
 
R

ReefGuy69

Member
Do you all think the full moon has anything to do with events like this? Seeing we just had one on X-mas eve i am just curious if marine life doesnt have an internal time clock for the moon.
 
BigAl07

BigAl07

Administrator
RS STAFF
Lunar cycles have a LOT to do with spawning. It was noted on Discovery Channels "Fearless Planet" series about corals that they noticed that some of the coral they were trying to film spawned an exact # of days after the Full Moon. Once they figured that one out it was easy to catch them spawning over and over again.
 
Octoman

Octoman

Well-Known Member
I bet it is the full moon, Woodstock's BTA's just went off a couple days ago also.

As promised, here is some video. Sorry about the quality, I tried to make up for it with a jammin tune :) ...

 
goldenmean

goldenmean

Well-Known Member
Very Nice!
I want your Love.
Makes me feel sorry for the urchin - all that love - Unrequited

I like the way you close the shades at the end of the vid!
 
Paul B

Paul B

Well-Known Member
I am not sure if the full moon has anything to do with it but I once had 24 of them all spawn at the same time in my reef. Now that was a mess. The skimmer which holds 5 gallons filled and spilled at least a few gallons on the floor.
I used to have an urchin collecting business and there was always a bunch of them in my tank. It seems that a temp change also induces spawning.
 
R

ReefGuy69

Member
Very cool thing to see. But the more i think about it... it kind of grosses me out. Basically his man juice is now all over your aquarium.. Yuck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top