Urchin died!

maxsmart

maxsmart

Member

My black spiny urchin I got 5 days ago from a LFS was collapsed when I got home today. He was so active, always moving around from the sand to the liverocks, which are covered with diatom algae, corraline algae, and macro algaes. According to the LFS, and from what I read, that should have been his ideal foods. I was going to put a vegetarian sinking algae pellet near him today to see if he'd eat that - but never got the chance. I haven't measured since Monday, but my ammonia, pH, temperature, and nitrites were perfect. What did I do wrong?
My girlfriend and I are both very depressed about this, we loved our little Hades. He was so cute wiggling his spikes!
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
The urchin did not die of starvation - this takes month.
I agree, we need specific information on water parameters, tank age and acclimation time.
In this time frame it is almost always some sort of acclimation shock :(
 
maxsmart

maxsmart

Member
Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
pH=8.3
Temperature = 76F
Salinity = 1.0238
72gal + 15 sump
I drip-acclimated him for 2 hours. When I put him in, he crawled to the corner and stayed there a couple hours - the next morning he had found his way into a narrow cravace in the rocks, by that evening he was crawling all over the place - across sand, live rocks, and walls. He'd move about a foot, stay there an hour, and move again. One other thing I noticed was that he shed 3-4 spikes along his way over the course of his 5 days - I don't know if this is normal.
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
They sometimes break...but "shedding" is not really normal in excess. I am concerned for your salinity...do you read with a hydrometer or refractometer? Ideally specific gravity for these animals should be 1.025-1.026.
But damage is often done to these animals before they even reach your tank (eg did your LFS acclimate them? What is their specific gravity?).
 
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