Urchin

[boshank23]

hey guys, bit of help needed. i bought an urchin yesterday, aclimatised him for half hour then slowly dripped tank water in for another hour or so. i popped him in the tank and everytime he tries to climb anything he just falls on his back (arse in urchin terms)

all his spines are still upright and not droopy at all, do you think he is just crap at climbing or is he sick??

ah poop sorry posted this in the wrong section, would a mod mind moving it for me please to the invert section?

thanks

 

[Lynden]

What type of urchin is it? I wouldn't be worried about 'im if I were you.

 

[boshank23]

he has perked up this afternoon. he is a pin cussion urchin. he is having a good ol roam about, i do have a new problem though

it seems like 1 of my green chromis has an urcin spine stuck in his mouth, its really vexing him that he can't get it out, i tried to catch him but i just ended up stressing the fish out.

will he be able to get it out on his own or will i have to persist in trying to catch him and remove it?

 

[Navarre]

chromis tend to take refuge in urchins if they feel threatened. it might have been startled and dove for cover but missed

Getting it out will be a problemthough.. they tend to stay in for a long time. A friend of mine was diving and the swell pushed him ontoa reef wall full of urchins.. he was in agony and even after 6 months he was still finding tips of spines under the surface of the skin. i would monitor the fishand see how it fairs over the next few days. if its stil not hay then try to catch it and remove the spine

 

[chrissaysyes]

correct me if Im wrong but I think your urchin is fine as long as he's not dropping spines left and right...also one of the biggest reasons I've heard for people not to get urchins is because they roam around so much on the rock and can knock things out of place pretty easily...make sure all of your LR structures are stable. Take some pics of the little guy

 

[boshank23]

well the chromis seems to have gotten the spine out but .......my urchin shed most of his spines today. he seemed to be perking up lastnight, did a sprint (well for an urchin) from 1 end of my tank to the other. all his feet are sticking to the rock still he is just minus his spines.

i am proper gutted, i have never lost a marine animal since i started

 

[Navarre]

half an hour is a bit short IMO. When it comes to inverts, starfish and urchins etc i tend to acclimatise ovr 4 or 5 hours

 

[boshank23]

i aclimatised him for an hour and a half. half hour just in the bag and an hour of dripping water into the bag.

well i did ask the guy in the shop before i bought him, as i knew they were of the star fish genus, (being symetrical in a 5 sided kinda way) and he did say normal fish times.

it will teach me to reserch things that i don't know alot about, and not to let my wife choose things for the tank.

 

[Lynden]

Acclimation time is oftentimes not as important as it is commonly accepted to be. I bought a Protoreaster nodosus (Chocolate Chip Star) and a Brittle Star at the same time a long time ago, and their bags fell over in the tank after a mere 15 minutes of acclimation. The brittle survived until he was eaten by the Protoreaster, and the Protoreaster survived until the tank nuked about 9 months after I purchased him.

-Lynden

 

[boshank23]

i tell ya what, this urchin is all over the tank again today??? seems fine only - a few spines. he is just trying to make me feel sorry for him

 

[dixaisy930]

I would check your water parameters. I'm sure they are ok, but check them just to make sure.

Is it eating? Is it carrying around anything with it (shells, macros, etc)?

Just because it's moving around doesn't necessarily mean it will be ok. I only acclimated my first urchin (when I first had the tank) for only 30 minutes. He didn't move at all the first day or two, then seemed prefectly fine. A few weeks later, he started loosing spines, eventhough he was still cruising around the tank. I lost him a day or two after that. Now, my second urchin that I've had for almost a year now, lost over half of spines when I tried him in a different tank. I thought he was definately a gonner, so I moved him back to his orginial tank and he perked up after a few days. It's not common for urchins to make it after they start to loose spines (they don't drop lots of spines for no reason).

If he's carrying things around with him, I would say that is a good sign. Keep an eye on him, and make sure no one is harassing him.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Definitely check your water parameters. Im pretty sure an urchin losing it's spines is a mainly due to high levels of nitrates.

 

[xNOTLOCx]

uuuggg I have alot to say lol, alright a black long spine, rock etcher, pincushin, and tuxedo, urchin will all be fine in nitrates up to 40 ppm, anything above that is when spines are gonna drop. rock slate urchins are fine until nitrates hit 28ppm, just to let u kno... but if your nitrates are below 40 they are fine for an urchin to live in, BUt if your nitrates are 10 ppm higher than your lfs the rule for urchins that not many people knwo is for every 5 ppm of difference in nitrates you need to acclimate an hour after the original 2 hours of acclimation, so if the lfs has 0 nitrates and you have 10 ppm nitrates. then you need to acclimate a standard 2 hours for your urchin plus 2 more hourse for the amoutn of time it take your urchin to overcome the difference in the water without causing shock. urchins are incredibley hardy, but they need to be acclimated as if you were acclimating a very difficult addition. urchins will do fine as long as they dont notice any changes in water parameters. next thing. urchins sometimes fall on new glass if it feels different. also if your urchin was knocked around in the bag alot it can mess up its equilibrium for a couple days, leading it to fall. Your urchin I think just wasn't acclimated long enough, sure there are people who acclimate them within an hour and theirs do fine, but most likley the case is that their water parameters are not too different. Make sure your salinity isn't too low, urchins hate the feeling of low salinity, they prefer med-high. if their spines become brittle it's because of low salinity, they can't produce the nutrients neccecary for proper spine growth at low salinity.

 

[boshank23]

my water stats are spot on, the urchin has my thermometer on its back today and is currently eating the coraline off my powerheads......don't worry its turned off so there is no chance of him loosing any more apendiges

 

[xNOTLOCx]

Actually sometimes urchins like to pass over powerheads, it doesnt usually hurt them unless they have long spines getting caught. and if your urchins has lost spikes it feels vulnerable and it may feel uncomfortable so higher water pressure sometimes seems to feel good to urchins in bad moods. It hasn't really been proven but when I was getting a slate and tuxedo urchin back up to health, they seemd to hang around the powerheads and recover faster than the other one i had that didnt have a powerhead. I have no idea why. i have just heard they like higher pressure in water when sick to make their environment feel different so they arent focusing on what they don't like,,if that makes sense... Good thing it's eating, you can also help it by getting some cheat or seaweed for it to munch on, it will help with regeneration and stress, it will take its "mind" off of things... eating is good.... not only for us..