Urchin Loosing Spines - Need Help

[nocpan]

I have a black long spined urchin, it used to be in my 30 gal tank but after 2 months the puffer aquired a taste for it and so quickly I moved it to my spare first aid 10 gal tank, and its been sitting there for another 2 months, it grew its spines back and became huge! each spine was about 4 inches long. Yesterday I bought a small Fluval-1plus so the urchin would get some water current (before it had just the standard bubbly box filter). This morning i went to the aquarium and the urchin shed/lost about 3/4 of its spines, I mean the bottom is littered with them and it has maybe like 20 - 30 of them left.

I checked the water, salt 1.023 on the dot, Ammonia 0, Nitrate 0, Nitrite less than 5, Ph 7.9 - 8.0 (yeah its kinda low but its always been like that). And the zebra thats swimming with the urchin acts normal. Temperature is steady on 78-79 F I always had a good expensive heater inthere.

Suggestions???

 

[nocpan]

Guys(and ladies) comon! its dying and I have no idea why@! all level are great if this wasn;t salt water i'd drink it! I just pumped 3 gal out and replaced them with 3 gal from my other salt water tank which also has perfect water.... I just don;t understand what's going on since for 2 months this was a cradle of joy!

 

[SkiFletch]

Could be that its starving to death? Does it have much food (algae) to eat in its tank?

 

[steelhealr]

When a BLU loses it spines, it is a sign of stress, usually water conditions. Did you acclimate it well, assuming that was a separate tank? I have a BLU and he's been real easy to care for. They eat coralline algae....is there enough in that tank? SH

 

[Navarre]

SH is right, spine loss is a sign of stress. Now this can be down to lack of available food, bad aclimatisation or even bacterial infection etc.

I would remove the reamining livestock from the tank just in case the urchin doesnt make it as its death will most likely nuke the tank.

 

[nocpan]

well the tank is nicely covered with algee, it is aclimatized cause its been in this tank for 2 months, I had to move it there because initially i put it in my bigger salt water tank which had an algee problem but my puffer which normally is oblivious to anything in the tank after a while developed a taste for the urchin (iknow i checked, puffers eat urchins but mine was always like a hippie on dope nothing ever drew his attention, not new fish, new decor, new filter)

ANywas so I moved the urchin to the new tank, and I was feeding him algee disks for a while untill the aquarium developed its own algee, he grew, I mean i put him in and he was less than 2 inch across with spines clipped by the puffer, and just before he started to loose spines he was about 6 - 7 inches across with spines. I tossed him a disk but he won't touch it, before he'd always jump on it and feed for good 8 hours

I donno what test i can run, i mean except for ph being low there is no ammonia, no nitrate really low nitrite

he is still alive and i do 2 gal water changes each day (i have a salwater tank setup to filter and cycle saltwater for changes)

it all started when I upgraded to the freaking fluval filter, i though he whould be more confortable with more water circulation and some current, before he was on a simple bubble box which apparently was enough for him

 

[Navarre]

Are you using Ro water or normal tap water? If its tap water then its possible that the water authorities have dosed it with copper to kill off any freshwater shrimps. If copper has got into your tank then your Urchin is in real danger.

 

[nocpan]

crap! i didn't use tap water to mix salt, i buy pocono spring water in 2.5 gal tanks (altho sometimes i add reg water to dilute the solution if its too straongm but i run it through a britta filter first and add water treatment), but i did wash the new filter in tap water and put it in still all wet.

Are you using Ro water or normal tap water? If its tap water then its possible that the water authorities have dosed it with copper to kill off any freshwater shrimps. If copper has got into your tank then your Urchin is in real danger.

 

[xNOTLOCx]

oh well myne is doing great, but now you scared me because im about to get ne filtration but its only filtration how could it affect the tank? myne ish appy and he climbs up the glass i like watching the little fingers stick to things and pull him around, and i see his filterfeeding stick lol im not sure of the name. but i hope myne stays healthy, gr8 u scared me now...

 

[Mr Miagi]

but i did wash the new filter in tap water and put it in still all wet.

Always wash your filter or filter media in saltwater taken directly from the tank. Dont wash any material you have in fresh water. When you say new though, what do you mean? Is it new to your system?

 

[nocpan]

yeah and this is short version of what i described above, please don't flame me for what i did, i make do witch what money i have ( currently unemployed, need a IT guy?)... so

2 months i ago I moved my urchin to a spare 10 gal tank cause the puffer was making lunch out of the urchin, the tank had a box bubble fileter, like the ones they sell you with a starter gold fish tank, urchin liked it, especially when it started getting covered in algee. Now after 2 months I wanted to add small fish in there like a zebra, clown or that yellow purple one, so I figued i need better filter. Went to petland and picked up a brand new in the box Fluval 1.

I washed the fluval in tap water, pulled the sponges and some cotton from the bubble box filter since they already had the bacteria set up in there, put it in the fluval put the fluval in the 10 gal with the urchin next day urchin dropped 75% of its spines.

I keep monitoring the water levels every thing is peechy!

Can i add more water conditioner to the tank? maybe if i got any heavy metals in there it will clear that away?

but i did wash the new filter in tap water and put it in still all wet.

Always wash your filter or filter media in saltwater taken directly from the tank. Dont wash any material you have in fresh water. When you say new though, what do you mean? Is it new to your system?

 

[crazyelece]

Nothing gets rid of heavy metals. I would try removing all the water in the 10 gal. Replacing it with water from the established tank. Do a water change to replentish that tank. And switch back to the "bubble box". See if that fixes it. Or if your other tank has a sump you could try adding him there for awhile.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Ok, sounds like you did all the right things setting up that filter. I dont know what else you could do if all your tests seem fine. Water conditioner, to the best of my knowledge only really removes chlorine and chloramine. Not heavy metals. The only way to get pur water is to use Reverse osmosis water. Your local fish shop shoud sell you it in litres for a few bucks. Use that for FW top-up and water changes.

I hope someone else might have more of an idea. Hope all goes well.

 

[plecoguy]

i work at a lfs, and sometimes we get long spines in that arent doing well, and we have NEVER had a whole tank die when the longspine does...never any problem at all in fact...

 

[Donya]

to the best of my knowledge only really removes chlorine and chloramine. Not heavy metals.

Aquarium Pharmeceuticals has a conditioner that claims to bind heavy metals, effectively "removing" them (so they don't harm inverts). I've used it on copper-rich tap water to make it safe for freshwater inverts and it definitely worked under those circumstances, but I don't know if the conditioner works in saltwater as well.