urchin question...

[hlcroghan]

Is there any urchin out there that is safe with corals?? and what do they normally eat? Do you have to feed them and if so, what do you feed them?

 

[alabama reefer]

Urchins are very good algae eaters(unfortunately coralline included). They do tend to knock things over and pick up hermits, frags or whatever and piggyback ride it around the tank. They will eat on algae sheets if you don't have enough growing in your tank.

 

[meowzer]

forget pencil urchins they definitely eat corals...but I also have a pincushion and it has not touched anything

 

[hlcroghan]

So, would a little blue urchin be okay with corals as long as I gave it algae sheets to eat? Will it eat other invertebrates? And my other question is how in the heck do you get in into the tank with all those little pokey things?? What is a good acclimation for them.....drip? And for how long?

 

[alabama reefer]

I had the purple pincushion. The blue will be fine. Just acclimate like you would any invertabrate. It will not harm other than picking it up and toting it around. You may have to rescue a hermit from time to time if you have any. You just pick it up like you pick up an apple. If it is attached to something just wiggle it a little and it will turn loose. Mine is pretty tough and gets thrown in the sump from time to time because it picks up my frags and drops them behind the rocks.

 

[nycbob]

tuxedo urchins r reef-safe.

 

[pbnj]

My purple pincushion was a snail-killer.

 

[vinny p]

i have a tuxedo, asides from it eating coraline and carrying my frag of zoo's...its great.

 

[thehorndaddy]

I have a pencil and a purple urchin for about two years now. I have corals as well in the tank and have only found the pencil urchin eating a coral once just the other day. The pencil urchin attached itself to the base of my devil's hand leather and the leather was not happy. I pulled him off and the leather recovered the next day. Other than that, I notice the urchins will normally eat around the corals when moving rock-to-rock. I hope it remains that way.

 

[r1v2c]

Originally Posted by vinny p
http:///forum/post/2967296
i have a tuxedo, asides from it eating coraline and carrying my frag of zoo's...its great.
+1 on the tuxedo urchin ... they're interesting around the tank ...once I saw it with a snail on it's back

... i had to rescue my poor snail.

 

[dub tek]

as some others said
I have a tux urchin
and it carries all types of things here and there about the tank