Purple Urchin/Lettuce Nudibranch?

[mantisman51]

I just recieved my latest SWF.com order and now I read more about these two animals.

I have read conflicting messages about urchins. Some say they are totally reef safe and some say they are hazardous to coraline and mushrooms, while others say it's a crap shoot. 1) Are urchins that dangerous to reef life? 2) Are they really that erratic that one devours coraline and another won't touch it? 3) Do Lettuce Nudibranch really only live a few weeks to a few months at most?

 

[cranberry]

Urchins will definately eat coralline. I just had one I had for a long time chow through some zoas. I don't think he was after the zoas but they just happen to be in his path of destruction. All my prized zoas were in there so I moved him over to the mantis half of the tank and he's removed all the corraline from the rock in there.
Lettuce nudis do not survive well in captivity.

 

[kingsmith]

I was watching Planet Earth on Discovery Channel the other day and they were showing giant Kelp fields that go 3 or four stories high. Then they showed and army of Rainbow Urchins attacking the base of the kelp and clearing huge fields out, those little circular mouths of theirs can definatly do some damage

 

[cranberry]

Man, that was a great show.
Oh, was gonna ask, what species of urchin is a prurple urchin anyways.

 

[emilaya101]

there's a pencil urchin in my 55 that ima bout to get rid of . . .
He eats corraline

 

[nycbob]

the only urchin i know that is reef safe is the purple tuxedo urchin. the only drawback is it will pick up many things. i still hv lots of coraline algae.

 

[mantisman51]

I'm not sure about the species. That is what SWF.com calls them. They are just the same old urchins I saw by the millions (literally) on the reefs around Puerto Rico. I just tried to post a picture of the urchin, but I am as computer illiterate as I thought.

 

[cranberry]

Oh, you ordered them here... they are the Echinometra viridis.

 

[mantisman51]

The two urchins are now starting to forge a path of destruction and the LFS moved locations and won't have their sw tanks up for another couple weeks. My 55 g QT tank is in hypo-mode for my ich-ridden fish and I have to stop the carnage. Will they be ok in my sump? It is brand new and only has cheato in it.

 

[kingsmith]

I think they might eat it in your sump, Like I said above I saw a show where they were mowing down huge patches of Kelp

 

[cranberry]

If you want him to stay away from your cheato, feed him nori sheets or something similiar.

 

[mantisman51]

BTW here's what I have eating my LR as fast as possible. These are some pictures from PR last February. If I would have known I was going to buy some, I would've just put some in a bag and brought them home. From the time this picture was taken, I was back at home within 12 hours. http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/r...returns017.jpg