Question about purple urchin

[kilofey]

Today, I noticed 4 spines on the sandbed... So naturally I thought my urchin died. I tore apart my rock looking for it (i JUST got the rock how I like it yesterday ugh!) I finally found it wedged in a rock hole. It looks perfectly fine, he looks like he isnt even missing any spines.
Could he accidentally have gotten wedged somewhere tight and broke a few spines off or while I was rearranging the rock the other day, could I have broken them off? Or if I see 4 spines, is it just a matter of time before he loses the rest and dies?
It just sucks, cause he spends his whole life behind the lr so IF he dies, I have to tear the whole tank apart again! I dunno what to do with him. If it dies im freaking screwed! I plan on one day making this tank a full blown reef tank and if it dies, im sure my water quality will go completely hay wire.
Ahhhh I need a cigarette lol. This is NOT how I wanted to start off my first sw tank... :cry: But, like I said in my other threads, it was either I take this urchin or the guy was going to dry him out and use it as bathroom decor :-/

 

[mproctor4]

How big is your tank? The smaller the tank the more effect it would have if it died. If you have a small tank it will probably starve to death. If you have a large tank and a good clean up crew I doubt it would effect your water quality that much. What kind of clean up crew do you have? If you are that concerned about it, give the urchin to someone or take it back to the LFS.

 

[kilofey]

Thanks for the help, I have 5 hermits, about 15 snails, 2 brittle stars, 2 peppermint shrimp, and another urchin
The tank is 75 gal and they came with lr and ls... So I brought their source of food home with me. I assume they wont starve cause it was enough to sustain them in someone elses tank
The clean up crue is still being added to and im going to do a water change incase the water is bothering him. I hope he doesnt die :sad:

 

[mproctor4]

The purple urchin is my favorite. We see them on the beach in South Carolina. I am afraid to bring one home for our tank because my dad tried a couple of different times to keep them in his 180g and they never lived too long. We just assumed they starved to death because he had very little algea in his tank. I have a 120g and have less algea than he did and I don't want to take a chance. I found one a couple of years ago that was as small as my little fingernail. Unfortunately I didn't have a container to put it in at that moment or it would have come home with us. That is the only time I have ever seen one that small. I believe Meowzer has had one in her 225 for quite some time, maybe she will chime in here.
If you are worried about a food source you could see if it will eat an algea sheet. You probably do need a bit more of a clean up crew. If you have bristle worms they help alot also. I don't understand how someone could keep a critter as their pet and then kill it for bathroom decor

. Nice guy.

 

[kilofey]

I will be adding more cuc soon, just got $235 extra $ to spend on the tank ) sold some stuff on craigslist... Cuc is commming soon. Ill try an algae sheet... &i kno, that guy was a total jerk!

 

[mproctor4]

A windfall for the tank is always fun! Any ideas what you are going to spend it on? CUC won't cost you too much since you have a good start.

 

[kilofey]

I was planning on adding "the big 20 reef pack" from swf. Its got 40 hermits, 40 snails, a coral banded shrimp, & 2 cleaner clams. I was also going to buy a lettuce nudibranch (more research first) and a ricordea its on sale at swf for 9.99 the thing that confused me though is that it says 1 polyp... Is that one mushroom or literally one little dot? Like one little dip n' dot sized frag? Cause if im gonna get a dip n' dot sized frag I kinda dont want it cause I heard rics grow slowly anyway.... Anyhoo, I may get some shrimps prolly a few fires and a few cleaners. And that will prettymuch take my whole $235 lol, maybe ill sell some more stuff to buy some fish lol
Btw, there is a grand opening this saturday for a coral shop woooooo! All corals, all the time at this place! Theyre supposed to have door prizes and awesome sales and such... Guess whose going.... THIS GUY! Well, girl lol. Regardless, im excited cause now theres 2 lfs where I can get good fish and one coral place within close proximity

 

[kilofey]

The purple urchin is my favorite. We see them on the beach in South Carolina. I am afraid to bring one home for our tank because my dad tried a couple of different times to keep them in his 180g and they never lived too long. We just assumed they starved to death because he had very little algea in his tank. I have a 120g and have less algea than he did and I don't want to take a chance. I found one a couple of years ago that was as small as my little fingernail. Unfortunately I didn't have a container to put it in at that moment or it would have come home with us. That is the only time I have ever seen one that small. I believe Meowzer has had one in her 225 for quite some time, maybe she will chime in here.

If you are worried about a food source you could see if it will eat an algea sheet. You probably do need a bit more of a clean up crew. If you have bristle worms they help alot also. I don't understand how someone could keep a critter as their pet and then kill it for bathroom decor

. Nice guy.


Btw, have u ever brought things home from the beach for your tank? Im tempted but it kinda makes me nervous cause everyone says not to. If u have, has it ever worked out bad for u? Can inverts get diseases or would they be safe?

 

[mproctor4]

Yes, we have brought many things home from the beach. You need to check the laws for the state you are in. The only problem I had was last year brought a puffer home and my tank had ick and didn't realize it, puffer died. Had a mess for a while. Personally I think it is less stressful for the critters to only be handled once rather than going thru a collector and then a few stops along the way. Plus it is really cool to watch the critters you collect grow. We use a cooler with a battery operated air stone from Walmart. Cheap and works well. We save our milk jugs the week we are at the beach, fill them with fresh ocean water and about half way home we do a water change. It is about 850 miles from our house and we usually drive straight thru. After our ick nightmare, everything in our tanks go into the QT first, including invertebrates and corals. I think it is unlikely that they will introduce ick, but not taking a chance and they may have another illness.
IMO it isn't any different from someone collecting and selling to a fish store as long as you are following the laws and have permits if they are required. We see people all the time collecting 5 gallon BUCKETS full of starfish, urchins, conchs, and hermits for their shells. If they allow that, a few taken home for our tank shouldn't be a federal offense. We try to be respectful to the environment and take good care of the critters we bring home. Sometimes we also find some great plants--seaweed in a tidepool. If you are interested in collecting yourself there are some good fish/invert guidebooks that you can take with you to identify things you find. You do want to do some research before you just randomly start bringing things home to make sure you really want it and it is appropriate for an aquarium.

 

[kilofey]

cool, its summer time and I only live about an hour away from the beach... One of the beaches I live close to is tide pool city! Should find some cool stuff there it sounds like alot of fun. Can u quarantine things for like a week in the cooler or do u have a qt tank set up? I dont have the space or $ for a separate tank, so I reluctantly dont qt anything atm. Will hermits and such live in a cooler for a while (with circulation of course) should they be given a lr to crawl around on?
Sorry for all the questions, im very new to the hobby & I like the idea of being able to qt without a specific qt tank running all the time

 

[mproctor4]

We leave our cooler on the porch of the house we stay in at the beach all week but we do daily water changes and try to keep the nutrient level low. I always recommend a QT tank, but will say in all the years (over 30) we have been bringing stuff home, we've never gotten any disease/parasite that we are aware of. If you live on the east coast there are 2 types of common hermits that we typically find. One has tan colored legs with strips and it grows quickly and gets very aggressive. The other is very pale, almost white, they grow slower and tend to stay out of trouble. If you get the first type just keep in mind you will need a back up plan when it gets too big for your tank and they will kill every snail they can find just for fun.
We found some red macro algea last year that is really pretty and has grown about 5x's it original size. Also if you don't have fish that will eat small shrimp we bring home a few ghost shrimp. We keep them in the cooler for food for crabs, puffer or whatever and if any are left they go in the tank. I still have about 4 in my sump from last year. They stay small and are fun to watch. Personally I avoid the urchins and stars because they eventually starve. Brittle stars have done very well.
We have had good luck bring fish home but other than the puffers, they don't have as much color as I personally like in my tank. Many of them also get too large and aggressive. The last few years we tend to stick to inverts and algea. I've had great luck with rock anemones--as long as your tank is stable, decent lights (I have t5s and they are fine for them), and you feed them every few days. The search is fun, just be sure to check the local ordinances.

 

[kilofey]

How do you go about checking local ordinances?

 

[mproctor4]

I'm sure you can find it somewhere online

. I have just asked the locals that live around there, the bait store/hardward store has always given us good advice. They sell the licenses and know the laws. Things we collect on the shoreline haven't required any special licenses so far but I'm sure it is different from place to place and could change.