Urchins...

[silly34]

I have 3 urchins that came off of some live rock. I was told that I should get rid of them so I just put them in the sump w/ some rock. But I am wondering if I should put them back in the main tank?? My concern was them eating coraline algea. Are they beneficial?

thanks,

B.

 

[fishfanatic2]

It depends what kind of urchin they are. most urchins will eat coralline to some extent, however, they eat other algae too and are neat to watch. I have a pencil urchin in a 29 gallon, and though he does eat my coralline sometimes, its never enough to be a problem. Although u ahve 3, your tank is probably bigger than mine, correct?

Relatively safe urchins or ones that are commonly kept by reefers include pencils, tuxedos, and occasionally the double spined urchin.

HTH

 

[silly34]

Cool thanks. I have a 125g tank. I will get some pictures of them tonight and maybe we can identify them.

Thanks again!

B.

 

[SpecialK]

If your tank is a 125 acrylic dont put them in.

Kaye[/quote]

 

[sjfishguy]

Most consider the blue tuxedo urchin to be the only reef safe urchin. On that premise, I put one in my tank. I noticed my huge pulsing xenia colony slowly getting smaller. I never saw him eating it, but he is the suspect. He went back immediately and I would tell you not to put any urchins in a reef tank.

 

[Anonymous]

doubt that the blue tuxedo urchin was eating xenia..im not 100% sure but never heard of that kind of urchin eating corals...Urchins depending on the species do eat some coralline but also eat other nuissance algae

 

[shellshocked]

Silly,
I had the same thing with my first aquarium - it was a hitchhiker on the live rock. I don't quite know the species but it was a long spine black urchin that you see everywhere. It started out as just a wee little thing about 1/2 inch and grew to about 3-4 inches in diameter including spines. It was a great addition and lived for over three years - and in the end I think I was was the cause of it's demise. It would clean the coraline algae off of the rocks but also ate everything else. Occasionally it would knock something over. I have a tuxedo urchin now and to be honest I liked the long spine better - it was definitely a better cleaner and I liked how it looked. Just my experience...

 

[SpecialK]

I had a long spine urchin when I first started and when I got home from work it was on one of my corals and my coral was nothing but bone. Nothing left on it.

Kaye

 

[shellshocked]

SpecialK,
Ouch! Well at least the Urchin had good taste Does point out the need to understand exactly what you have though.

 

[LFS42]

blue tuxedo's are pretty cool to watch

I dropped a staple in my 37 when I was securing some wires
I couldn't find it to save my life,
I probably smushed it into the sand.

The next day, that urchin was carrying it around like
decoration

 

[Anonymous]

My urchin carries around things too..hermit crabs, shells, small pieces of LR... quite commical actually