Sea Urchin Advice Please!

[gregory9770]

Hi guys,

I'm sorry I only post when I need advice - newbie (I nearly died when my shrimp molted the other day!). Anyway, believe it or not I was gifted a beautiful sea urchin the other week. All seemed cool for a couple of days. I was led to believe it was quite active and seemed so to begin with. Now it has taken up residence under the inlet pump from the sump, at the bottom of the display tank and pretty much stays there. I think that seems a bit strange. Should I be worried? Please help - he's lovely and I don't want to lose him.

G.

P.S. He lost some spines when the previous owner took him out of his tank. Stress or rough handling - I don't know?

 

[smokinjoe2122]

Hi guys,

I'm sorry I only post when I need advice - newbie (I nearly died when my shrimp molted the other day!). Anyway, believe it or not I was gifted a beautiful sea urchin the other week. All seemed cool for a couple of days. I was led to believe it was quite active and seemed so to begin with. Now it has taken up residence under the inlet pump from the sump, at the bottom of the display tank and pretty much stays there. I think that seems a bit strange. Should I be worried? Please help - he's lovely and I don't want to lose him.

G.

P.S. He lost some spines when the previous owner took him out of his tank. Stress or rough handling - I don't know?

While I'm not an urchin specialist, I have had mine for a few months now. Mine tends to move around quite a bit. Maybe it's due to lack of a food source if you don't have a lot of algae or coralline for it to graze on. I would try supplementing some dried sea weed for a food source. I feed mine at least once a week.

 

[seffieuk]

Welcome Greg - you really don't need to only post when you have a question, just join in with the chat starting a journel is also another good way of getting involved

What sort of urchin do you have? How big is your tank, how long established, do you have live rock?

Seffie x

 

[gregory9770]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice, Smokin' Joe! I've target fed the urchin today and he seems a lot happier - I'm on it now! Also to you, Seffie for the welcome-youngfisher directed me here a while back when I was trying to decide on fish stock. I have a 500L set up (3ft by 2ft by 2ft with sump) with lots of live rock - somewhere between 60 and 100kilos. (A long established tank, bought 2nd hand and new to me early this summer.) Too much rock I guess but it can stay there for now. I have some pics of the tank on my other thread - fish stocking opinions on the saltwater chit chat. I have just enough fish of varied colours and behaviours. There are at least a dozen hermits and 1-2 snails (I haven't seen my littlest for a day or two ) plus a cool shrimp and lots of baby sand sifting starfish.

All going along nicely and I'm very pleased with the new long spined urchin - Spike the Hedgehog!

Thanks again,

G.

P.S. Does anyone know if shops would rent out Copperbands to combat aiptasia?

 

[seffieuk]

Ahhhhhhhhh it's a long spinned urchin, are you aware they will strip the coraline off your live rock?

Sounds like a great set-up

LFs wouldn't normally hire out such a delicate fish, sorry - however you might want to have a look at the matted file fish (to buy), they eat aiptaisa, been looking at them myself

seffie x

 

[smokinjoe2122]

Ahhhhhhhhh it's a long spinned urchin, are you aware they will strip the coraline off your live rock?

Sounds like a great set-up

LFs wouldn't normally hire out such a delicate fish, sorry - however you might want to have a look at the matted file fish (to buy), they eat aiptaisa, been looking at them myself

seffie x

Like Seffie says, they will eat your coraline if you don't feed often. If you see your urchin starting to munch on your live rock, I would supplement the dried sea weed. It's funny, as unintelligent as these animals are, I have semi trained my star and urchin to come to the top / front of the tank when they want to be fed. Coincidence maybe? Perhaps....

 

[Donya]

Hi guys,

I'm sorry I only post when I need advice - newbie (I nearly died when my shrimp molted the other day!). Anyway, believe it or not I was gifted a beautiful sea urchin the other week. All seemed cool for a couple of days. I was led to believe it was quite active and seemed so to begin with. Now it has taken up residence under the inlet pump from the sump, at the bottom of the display tank and pretty much stays there. I think that seems a bit strange. Should I be worried? Please help - he's lovely and I don't want to lose him.

G.

P.S. He lost some spines when the previous owner took him out of his tank. Stress or rough handling - I don't know?

Although I haven't kept the species of urchin you've got, have you checked to see if it moves when the lights are off? Although my Eucidaris metularia started out being active most times of day, it quickly switched to being nocturnal. It will often go back to the exact same spot in the rocks a couple hours before the lights go on, and then a couple hours after lights out, it's off motoring around the tank.

Keep an eye on the spine loss. It can be a sign of stress or malnutrition if it doesn't replace them quickly and starts to develope small bald spots. If it's only a few spines here and there and isn't all that noticable then it's probably not much to worry about, since urchins will often not hesitate to get rid of spines that are damaged or getting encrusted with stuff.

 

[gregory9770]

Thanks for all the advice. He seems pretty stationary but has eaten a whole prawn and keeps going with the seaweed whenever I offer it. Seems my rock is safe for now. No more spines dropped. Great!

 

[seffieuk]

Excellent, don't be a stranger will you - how about starting a journel so we can watch your progress

Seffie x

 

[daveo_irl]

I'd like to 2nd the journal motion!

 

[kj23502]

Yes they do eat coralline. However this can be very beneificial if your rock is covered with coralline. It can choke out the rocks ability to filter I know quite a few aquarists that have empoyed a tuxedo urchin or similar to control this problem.

Glad to hear that your urchin is eating. Do keep an eye on him.

 

[Musho3210]

Yes they do eat coralline. However this can be very beneificial if your rock is covered with coralline. It can choke out the rocks ability to filter I know quite a few aquarists that have empoyed a tuxedo urchin or similar to control this problem.

Glad to hear that your urchin is eating. Do keep an eye on him.

Thats why I love my urchin. Coralline in an acrylic tank is a bad thing, but so are certain urchins (luckily mine doesnt scratch the acrylic).

Check on it at night, I am pretty sure all urchins are nocturnal, (mine is, a blue tuxedo urchin).

 

[kj23502]

Hi dude. How ya been? Quite a few lrc members have urchins. Was advised to get one later. I may or I may not. Not sure yet on that one.