Feeding Urchins

[yellow ace]

I am looking into Pencil urchins. Are they hard? How do I feed him? Should I get a pencil urchin or is a purple urchin better?

 

[spartan78]

I believe the main diet of urchins is greens. If you have a good supply of algeas such as coraline, I think he'll be fine. I think you can also get urchins to eat some meaty foods aswell, but i'm not real sure about what kinds they'll eat.

 

[crazyaqua]

I have a long spine urchin and when he is close to the top of the tank i will slip him a little piece of seaweed. Loves it :jumping:

 

[ophiura]

Do you have soft corals?

 

[yellow ace]

no, but I plan on getting some. Are urchins not okay for soft corals?

 

[_nix_]

I had a pencil urchin for a while, he would eat both the macro and micro algae in my tank. He would eat just about anything that I put in there, meaty foods and greens.
I finally gave him to my father in law for his tank, he needed an algae eater.

 

[ophiura]

Certain urchins, such as slate pencil urchins, should not be considered reef safe. Many may be a threat to some soft corals.

 

[yellow ace]

ok, well then maybe I'll just stay away from urchins....would rather have corals than an urchin.

 

[debbie]

Ophiura,
Will the long spine black urchins bother mushrooms?
What size of tank do they need to be in?
Are they compatible with other urchins?
Thanks for taking the time to do a nice post regarding starfish. Maybe sometime you could do one regarding Urchins...... :joy:
Deb