Purple Sea Urchin

[parker313]

The tank I am setting up (moved entirely from a friend's house) has a purple sea urchin in it. He got it as a hitchhiker on some lr he got. He never had corals but I was wanting to add some. Will the urchin munch on corals?

Thanks,
Kristin

 

[seffieuk]

Can you post a picture Kristen so we can identify it - some urchins are not a good idea in a reef

Seffie x

 

[parker313]

Can you post a picture Kristen so we can identify it - some urchins are not a good idea in a reef

Seffie x

I don't have my camera out right now, but it looks just like this urchin:

I got that image from this page.

 

[seffieuk]

Hi

I didn't know this sea urchin so had to google it:

growns to 90 cm
eats large algae
Comes from Australia

I couldnt actually find any info about keeping one in a tank.

Think you might need to do a bit of research, would be interested to hear your findings

Seffie x

 

[parker313]

Yeah, that was what I got too. It was purple and an urchin so I googled that and came back with "purple sea urchin". lol

I did some reading over at Reef Central and they seem to be OK - some may like to pick up shells, small rocks (maybe with coral frags) and carry them around as camouflage or accidentally crush some as they bulldozed through the tank, but they don't eat the coral. So, we'll give it a shot and if it doesn't work out, I can take him back to the store where my friend got his rock in the first place. It will be a while til I upgrade lights to have corals anyway.