Urchin or not to Urchin????

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drjay50000

Guest
anybody have Urchins? I no they eat algae but will they eat all the coralline algae too? if you have them let me know how you like them because i waz thinking about geting one to help clean up the rocks a bit. will it eat the slime algae too?
 
bigarn

bigarn

Active Member
They will eat coralline .... also keep in mind they are bulldozers and can knock down rock formations. Other than that I like them.
 
bojik

bojik

Member
They also will 'graze' over the surface of anything. Wich can stress some corals out a bit. I have one it bumbles around aimlessly. It seems to leave my coraline algae alone seemingly alltogether infavor of soft algae forms.
 
stsweene

stsweene

Member
I have a purple pin, honestly if you have coralline for it to eat then it will prob regrow fast enough, plus it helps spread it around. I think i have more since I got it
Mine stays away from my corals for the most part , i had a worse time with these 3 huge hermits that I just got rid of.
 
xdave

xdave

Active Member
I had a black longspine in a fowlr, with one anemone. I never had any algae in my tank. I loved him with all my heart
 
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drjay50000

Guest
no algae at all? no brown, green or red slime algae? does he eat your corallines too? how big is your tank? I have a 92gal corner with abot 90lbs of lr so how many should i have?
 
xdave

xdave

Active Member
65 gallon Seaclear FBH. Looked brand new. A couple times he even managed to get to the underside of the light fixture and eat the slime off of it. Didn't have any coraline, there was no LR and there was only NO lighting, 2 full spectrums and 2 actinic 03s. (there was a White Sebae Carpet in there for over 10 years the grew to fill almost the entire bottom of the tank.)
 
jam1e

jam1e

Active Member
I have a black longspine in my 65 it's really great .. i rubberband sheets of algea to my "feeder rock" so that he doesn't eat my coraline .. and he hasn't yet .. I didn't do that for a while after I put him in my tank becuase I let him eat all the algea off my rocks first .. I have him housed with 5 turbo snails .. 9 astrea snails .. a juvenile Blue Hippo Surgeon, 2 Snowflake Morays .. and a Fuzzy Dwarf Lion
 
piscesblue

piscesblue

Member
I had a black shortspined urchin that was really kewl, but he left my rocks white and since he had short, stiff spikes, he could get under light rocks and move them. I loved him, but have never seen another like him in the LFSs.
 
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drjay50000

Guest
I found an urchin at my lfs and picked one up today i put him in the tank and he spent all day in one spot. the rock is REALLY white. Is that a good thing?
 
dfelton

dfelton

Member
I have 4 purple urcins in my 120ga and I'm not sure if I should get rid of some/all of them. I haven't grown much coraline and my tank is about 3 months old. The water quality is fine and I dose w/ iodine and natural elements and change 10% water every week. My calcium level s always >450, but no caroline is growing...
I never knoew the urchins would eat coraline and I have to admit there isn't any algae on my rock at all for them to eat.
 
captainemo

captainemo

Member
Mine eat the coraline off the rocks leaving them white. Some will grow back. Some does not. I think they are good about spreading around the color. They do knock rock over almost every other week.
 
crox

crox

Active Member
I put my purple urchin in my sump because he moved a lot of rock but he did a good job with the algae.
 
cannonman

cannonman

Member
I had a purple urchin and XL hermit crab.... now I have just a XL hermit crab.
He ate everything except the spines, shell included. Live and learn...
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
i got 3 urchins (that i've seen at one time) as hitchikers. they are smaller than peas right now, although one is about the size of a grape. they are eating a lot of my brown algae so im going to keep em till it is gone. my hermits are the laziest things in the world :(
 
bojik

bojik

Member
Originally Posted by renogaw
i got 3 urchins (that i've seen at one time) as hitchikers. they are smaller than peas right now, although one is about the size of a grape. they are eating a lot of my brown algae so im going to keep em till it is gone. my hermits are the laziest things in the world :(
spiney's or short spined?
 
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