anything i can do?

[susie&jeran]

i made a post earlier about our urchin not doing so well (his spikes are laying down flat and falling out - i was told that most likely the cause is stress because these guys are very fragile and they can't take being shipped very well - is there anything that i could to for him that won't stress him out even further & maybe save the little guy? or is it pretty much hopeless?

 

[nicetry]

I'd be more intrerested in your water parameters; salinity, nitrate, pH, temp. I doubt that stress is the culprit here. Post this info and what else is in the tank.

 

[floatingfish]

sorry, how long you had him before he started declining? is he moving or just staying still?

 

[susie&jeran]

Originally Posted by nicetry
I'd be more intrerested in your water parameters; salinity, nitrate, pH, temp. I doubt that stress is the culprit here. Post this info and what else is in the tank.
I just did a test after reading this and though our parameters are usually consistant - there was some change.
Salinity - 1.021 (same as always)
PH - 8.4 (same as always)
Nitrites - 0.25 (usually it's always at 0)
Nitrates - 10 ( a little shocked - it's never been above 0 before)
Temp - 78
As for his tank mates...
1 other purple sea urchin
1 purple hiatian(sp?) anemone
1 sandsifting starfish
1 orange lankia starfish
1 cleaner wrasse - though I haven't seen him since lastnight (worried)
1 foxface
1 bluehippo tang
1 coral banded shrimp
2 cleaner clams
2 conchs
5 mexican turbo snails
11 blue legged hermit crabs
All of which are juvi's - no full grown.
I got to thinking about it lastnight and I remembered we did a bit of landscaping in our tank lastnight which probably stressed him out a bit (we should have put them in another tank, but we don't have it set up yet, so we tried to be as careful as possible) - though everyone else is doing wonderful - our foxface who usually looks like a rotten banana peel whenever we go near the tank was a very bright yellow during the whole thing (and still is) - if anyone would have died from over stressed - i figured it'd be him.
I read on another forum that sometimes they go into shock and lose their spikes, but can snap out of it. I've turned off the lights so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he'll snap out of this if he isn't gone already - not sure how to tell when urchin's are dead. :notsure:
Could doing landscape & stirring stuff up have caused the increase in my nitrates? What can I do to bring them back down to 0?

 

[susie&jeran]

Originally Posted by floatingfish
sorry, how long you had him before he started declining? is he moving or just staying still?
We just got him tuesday - he was doing great and then he picked a spot lastnight and hasn't moved since - now his spikes are falling out and he's not moving.

 

[renogaw]

your salinity is way too low. inverts need 1.026ish.

 

[susie&jeran]

Originally Posted by renogaw
your salinity is way too low. inverts need 1.026ish.
Hmm, our other inverts seem to be doing just fine though - maybe this one is just extra picky. If I raise the salinity to 1.026ish - is it going to effect my other fish? What is the best way to raise the salinity? Everytime we do a water change the salinity goes DOWN. Any tips?

 

[renogaw]

ok...
first, your salinity wont go down if you do water changes with the same salinity water. what are you using to test? if a swing arm hydrometer throw it out and get a refractometer. better yet, get the refractometer and then prove to yourself how inaccurate the hydrometer is by testing the same water with both items.
second: your fish won't mind the higher salinity
third: to raise the salinity: doing water top offs with salt water instead of fresh water is probably the safest way to do it. You don't want to do a quick salinity increase or you'll stress everything out. make sure your water change water is higher salinity as well.

 

[susie&jeran]

I'm using the swing arm hydrometer - won't be able to get a refractometer for a while though. Thank you for the tip - will give that try.

 

[renogaw]

the expense of this hobby can be staggering, but seriously the refractometer should be your next purchase. swing arms are insanely unreliable.

 

[trigger11]

I would agree the salinity should be higher. Either 1.025 or 1.026. I would make up a couple of different batches of water to add over the next few days. I wouldnt jump it up that high all at once. Depending on how big your tank is it will depend on how much salt you could add at one time. For example I have a 60g tank and I would add about 3g of water total for each batch I would make the sg in that 3g of water be about 1.028. That way it would raise the overal parameters up by about .1 or so. then do the same thing like 5 hours later. Rinse and repeat until you get up there high enough. Hopefully this made sense. If not then hopefully someone else can chime in as well.

 

[susie&jeran]

Originally Posted by renogaw
the expense of this hobby can be staggering, but seriously the refractometer should be your next purchase. swing arms are insanely unreliable.
i knew this hobby would cost a bit of money, but i never imagined i'd be anything like this! the refactometer is definitly going to be my next purchase. was going to buy another fish, but belive i will be holding off on that for a while until i get everything back to normal.

 

[susie&jeran]

Originally Posted by trigger11
I would agree the salinity should be higher. Either 1.025 or 1.026. I would make up a couple of different batches of water to add over the next few days. I wouldnt jump it up that high all at once. Depending on how big your tank is it will depend on how much salt you could add at one time. For example I have a 60g tank and I would add about 3g of water total for each batch I would make the sg in that 3g of water be about 1.028. That way it would raise the overal parameters up by about .1 or so. then do the same thing like 5 hours later. Rinse and repeat until you get up there high enough. Hopefully this made sense. If not then hopefully someone else can chime in as well.
*blinks*
uh..yeah.. made perfect sense!
actually i think i got it - i'll show this to my husband when he gets home and i'm sure he'll know what you're talking about.

 

[renogaw]

Originally Posted by susie&jeran
i knew this hobby would cost a bit of money, but i never imagined i'd be anything like this! the refactometer is definitly going to be my next purchase. was going to buy another fish, but belive i will be holding off on that for a while until i get everything back to normal.

i didn't want to type it, but definitely wanted to suggest it, to get the tool instead of the fish.
and btw, even a year later, once you've started saying "hmm, what should i do differently" it STILL costs a ton of money but the rewards are sweet IMO.

 

[cdangel0]

How did you acclimate?
If the LFS water was at 1.025 and you temp acclimated and dropped him in to a tank at 1.021 it sent him in to shock.
As mentioned above, slowly raise the salinity in the tank, keep the lights off, and cross your fingers.

 

[reefkprz]

just a tip folks if your salinity was 1.026 it would be fresh water, thats specific gravity. salinity would be more around 29 at a specific gravity of 1.021. these terms are not interchangable and this can lead to great confusion.
inverts need a higher SG of 1.024 minimum for them to live long healthy lives, running at a lower SG makes them more prone to any sort of ailment. and often the cause of death cant be figured out but it will definatly tie in to running at a lower SG.

 

[susie&jeran]

Originally Posted by Cdangel0
How did you acclimate?
If the LFS water was at 1.025 and you temp acclimated and dropped him in to a tank at 1.021 it sent him in to shock.
As mentioned above, slowly raise the salinity in the tank, keep the lights off, and cross your fingers.
Drip acclimate - I bought them from swf.com.

 

[renogaw]

Originally Posted by susie&jeran
Drip acclimate - I bought them from swf.com.

just fyi, this is why keeping to one post is less confusing.

 

[cdangel0]

How long did you drip-acclimate? Did you temp acclimate first? How did you place it in the tank - was it placed, or dropped in?

 

[susie&jeran]

Originally Posted by reefkprZ
just a tip folks if your salinity was 1.026 it would be fresh water, thats specific gravity. salinity would be more around 29 at a specific gravity of 1.021. these terms are not interchangable and this can lead to great confusion.
inverts need a higher SG of 1.024 minimum for them to live long healthy lives, running at a lower SG makes them more prone to any sort of ailment. and often the cause of death cant be figured out but it will definatly tie in to running at a lower SG.
You people are killing me
I've been using this thing to test...

I've been assuming that the 1.021 was the salinity, but thats actually the specific gravity? And the numbers on the left side is the salinity... right?
Ok so since I have both fish AND inverts.. what salinity should I have and what SG should I have????

We acclimated it the exact way the site though it said 1+ hours we aclimated them for about 3+ hours and no, I don't believe it was dropped, I'm almost positive it was placed into the tank.