Echinometra mathaei

[benthos]

from what I can find alot of hype then people saying their harmless and will actually redistribute coraline.

first off did I id this correctly?

Should I attempt to keep this in a 40g reef? any horror stories or mostly well behaved?

 

[Anonymous]

They eat anything thay pass over. I had on and it passed over a green cap and scoured a nice strip right through it. The cap RTNed because of it. They do not targer corals. IT it is up to you is you want to take the risk.

 

[wade1]

I had a shortspine urching (collected on the eastern seaboard of the US) for about 3 years. It only grazed on rocks and glass, never once did I see any damage resulting from the urchin itself. It wound up starving about a month or two ago since my tank has zero algae in it. I have 5 snails in my 200g tank (that is all it can support I guess)!

Wade

 

[Mihai]

I have two urchins - one long spine and one that looks like yours. Both are well behaved, the only thing they harm is me when I stick my hand in their spines. They don't seem to starve for the moment. On the other hand I have far more algae than Wade does. I have a 90 gal. So, I'd say, if you have algae go for it, if it's really clean, it will starve. FYI, I have softies a bit of lps and sps in my tank, the only suspected bothering is to a bubble coral - I think that my long spine stung it a few times - one head is often deflated while the others are fine, then this recovers and another goes down. They're interesting creatures. Yesterday I watched a lot my longspine munching on some Ulva.

M.

 

[benthos]

I had on and it passed over a green cap and scoured a nice strip right through it.

this would be a horrible thing as that is one of the nicest corals in my tank.
thanks for all your replies. If I dont keep it I hear you could always extract the rue from the creature.

 

[Mihai]

If I dont keep it I hear you could always extract the rue from the creature.

I heard it's great on sushi. This assumes it's a female. You may end up with a male though .

M.

 

[Anonymous]

Your ID is correct.
The problem with these is that they are rock borers. The will erode your rock work usually leading to collapse. While many consider them herbivores they are actually omnivores and are not reef safe. Not only will they knock over corals they may also consume some species.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Mihai]

David, so it's a different urchin than mine? It looks slightly different. Mine was really nice behaved for the last 6 months or so... (see attached pic).

M.

 

[benthos]

Not only will they knock over corals they may also consume some species.

known to prefer any certain kind...sps, lps, soft?

Im keeping my fingers crossed for xenia :twisted:

 

[benthos]

Mihai, yours looks a little different... note the white bands at the base of each spike on my pic.

 

[Mihai]

Yeah, I noticed that, but the difference is so small that they're likely from the same genus and if they are they share common habbits... However, I'd go with David's advice rather than mine, as he always knows what he's talking about.

Regards,
M.