Urchin!

[bollands]

yay got a long spined urchin hopefully. do u have to trim its spines and will it eat my cyno algae?

 

[Musho3210]

no and no

 

[Truck]

i am having a rant here...but did you not research this before you buy it!?

 

[seffieuk]

yay got a long spined urchin hopefully. do u have to trim its spines and will it eat my cyno algae?

No and No but it will eat all your lovely purple coraline algae, if you catch your hand on it -if you haven't already got it home, I would say keep it that way!!!

Seffie x

 

[Truck]

do they have any poison or anything in the spines? i can imagine it hurting though!

 

[seffieuk]

do they have any poison or anything in the spines? i can imagine it hurting though!

Watch out! Be careful when handling these creatures. Their extremely sharp spines can crumble after penetration into the skin, inflicting painful wounds (Sterrer 1986).

Ouch!

Seffie x

 

[TigerIssey]

According to Reef Secrets Truck, they are not Reef Safe and the spines are sharp and contain poison. Can cause painful stings to humans.

Eats red calcerous algae but also bryzoans, sponges and corals. It will accept dried sea weed in the aquarium.

They are I belive the natural host for the Bangai Cardinal fish. Hence the cardinals black stripes.

 

[bae1994]

also its not actual poision its the bacteria on the spines that cause bad infections
apparently

 

[TigerIssey]

The book I have says it is poison Bae.

 

[bae1994]

oh when i read on it it all ways said it was just bacteria

 

[TigerIssey]

You can probably pick up infection aswell. Many animals that pierce the skin can cause nasty bacterial infections. Different animals also leave different strains of bacteria behind in the wound.

Pasteurella is very common in dog and cat bites and can be found in other bites along with other normal suspects, S.aureus etc.

Would not be surprised therefore if bacteria is left in the wound.

Gawd, that is the first Microbiology have looked at since I was last at work in September. I miss the microbiology.

 

[bae1994]

ahh fair enough

 

[seffieuk]

Ah but isn't it true Tina that there is more harmful bacteria in a human bite than most animal bites?

Seffie x

 

[TigerIssey]

Ah but isn't it true Tina that there is more harmful bacteria in a human bite than most animal bites?

Seffie x

Also very true Seffie, humans carry some very nast anaerobes in their mouth. Particularly if the oral hygiene is bad.

 

[Buddyboy67]

This is the only urchin I kept out of 3..be wary in smaller tanks though..actually eat into rock as well as coralline to get microbes to digest. Yes they are poisonous and will cause swelling and stinging if tagged, followed by stiffness. Caught by mine a couple of months back on the knuckle and it took over 6 weeks to finally heal over with pieces of spine emerging for almost 4 weeks from the point of entry.
Mine has developed a taste for star polyps and stripped a mat of them overnight !!!