Pencil Utchin reef safe?

[ninjamini]

OK so I had 1 yellow button polyp. That grew to 7. OK I know its a real small colony. Yesterday my large pencil urchin, about 3" spine to spine, was sitting on one of the two out cropping. Afterwards they were closed up all night but I could see the yellow spot where it goes but real small. I just went to check on them to see if they reopened and I just found him there over the spot where they were. Polyps gone. Now I'm down to 3 polyps.
Did the urchin do it or was he just found at the wrong place at the wrong time?

 

[candycane]

No. and yes. There ya go. Pencil Urchins are the worst reef urchins. The don't have a brain and have no way of knowing what they eat. They will tear apart an acro to get to the coralline underneath. You can't say they are stupid, because something needs to have a brain to be stupid.

 

[renogaw]

Did the urchin do it or was he just found at the wrong place at the wrong time?

Originally Posted by candycane
No.

lol i love a single answer to a 2 part question, i do them all the time to my wife and it ticks her off.

 

[bang guy]

Pencil Urchins are Carnivores. They are not reef safe.

 

[ninjamini]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
Pencil Urchins are Carnivores. They are not reef safe.
Dam them. I have had this one for 2 years. He came as a hitchhiker on my very first live rock. Looks like he is going to be traded. Anyone want to trade for a pencil urchin. I'm looking for a yellow polyp frag.
Bang Guy. I have 2 other urchins. Are they all carnivores?

 

[1journeyman]

I too had one sneak in... I tried putting him in my refugium, but the crab I house there (also a hitchhiker) quickly began pulling off his spines and eating him.
Needless to say, back in the display he went. He does eat the occasional Zoo.

 

[a2hotz]

Thats so weird you posted this... I was just wrangling up my 2 urchins to trade them in to my LPS because they were knocking over all my rocks when I noticed that my xenia are missing along with the rock they were on. I found the rock at the bottom of the tank with an urchin on it.... and then to top it off, I pulled the urchin and inspected the rock which no longer has any xenia on it at all. It ate all the xenia.
Its a good thing they have a pre-arranged
new home... they would have a new home in the sky!
THIS NEEDS TO BE POSTED AS A REMINDER TO EVERYONE SO THAT THIS DOESNT HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!

 

[candycane]

Pencil Urchins are omnivores, but they still are not reef safe. They prefer to eat algae, but would also eat meat needs be. Either way they can't tell if what they are doing is wrong or right, not in the ethical sense - but in the means that they dont care what they are chewing through.

 

[bang guy]

Originally Posted by ninjamini
Bang Guy. I have 2 other urchins. Are they all carnivores?
No, most are herbivores. Really good herbivores.

 

[ninjamini]

Here is one of my other urchins. Another hitchhiker.

 

[candycane]

I would do some searching on them. I don't know a single urchin that is strictly a herbivore. I hate to say that since Bang said that they are. But I have had 1000's of pincushion urchins, like the one above. Each and every one when added to a tank of algae and bits of shrimp, squid, clams, etc. would first demolish most of the algae and then naw the base rock down to bare bone then begin eating the animals. They do prefer algae though in the long run. However all of them are omnivores.

 

[bang guy]

Wouldn't be the first time I was wrong, nor the last.

 

[dragracer]

Ok, so I was at my LFS, and I was really happy with them. They seem to know what they are doing and they have never steered me wrong. I went in today to look for an Urchin. I have never tried one before and thought, my tank is over a year and half old and has only ever had fish in it. I have a small amount of green hair algae. My LFS told me that the pencil would do a good job getting rid of that algae. Now I just read that they are carnivores. Then the nexr post said otherwise. Can someone help me out. I am still acclimating it. Should I stop and take it back??

 

[ninjamini]

If you dont have any corals to worry about throw him in. Its not like hes going to catch a healthy figh and eat them. Also remember that they are easy to catch and take out.
They are good algae eaters. I put my 2 pencils in my sump and they are consuming my cheto. I am going to pull them out and give them away.