Sea Urchin Losing Lots Of Spikes!

[zeo]

Hi,

I have happly had my sea urchin for nearly 4 months now, over this time he had gotten pretty big too.
The occasionaly spike or 2 left around the tank, but nothing major (I thought this was normal for an urchin as hair is to us).
This morning I came down to find my gravel covered in urchin spikes..!!! The sea urchin has been hiding behind a rock too (all day). From what I can see, he is still moving around, also still has a fair few spikes, but not many long ones thru.

Everything else seems to be doing great. Fish are happy as always. Anemones are larger then they ever have been. My peppermint shrimp changed skin today too and looks larger and happier then before.

I checked all the stats, all seem to be normal. (nothing diffrent over the last 4 months).
I havent done a water change in a while either.. so that cant be it.

Is this normal for a sea urchin to lose loads of spikes every so often?

 

[Donya]

Is your urchin getting enough to eat? Urchins that don't have enough to eat can start loosing spines. It's usually a few spines here and there as you said, not a massive spine drop that leaves the substrate covered. Sudden spine loss usually indicates a pretty stressed urchin in any case, although it may not be from the water.

 

[steelhealr]

Stress...urchins loose their spines under stress, so, it's either poor water quality or starvation. What are you feeding it? I've had mine for almost 2 years. SH

 

[zeo]

I've never really added any extras for it to eat.. (maybe thats the problem).
I always thought since my tank was covered in algea (literally) that was enough the urchin.

What would you recommend I feed it? I currently feed the rest of my tank on brineshrimp flakes, and the occasionaly frozen brine too.

 

[@ombomb]

depends on what type of urchin it is, mine eats coraline algae, some eat green alage some eat left overs etc etc

good urchin info here

 

[zeo]

I'm pretty sure its a Diadema savignyi. V.Dark black, with a big orange eyeball in the middle, some circles of blue if I remember correctly.

I googled up its feeding: influmous (sp) algea and coraline algea.

What else would you recommend I drop in for it to eat? Treats maybe?

 

[SkiFletch]

They'll eat Nori for sure. Easy to get your hands on...

 

[zeo]

RIP little urchin. Found my starfish eating its corpes this morning.