Urchins

[booya]

What can you tell me about urchins
1. do you have any?
2. Do you like them?
3. How reef safe are they?
4. Would you suggest that someone get one?
Any info helpfull

 

[rwhite]

I can only tell you about a Pencil urchin we had. Ours was pretty cool with the exception of starting to munch on our coralline. I thought maybe the coralline growth would keep up with it, but I was wrong. We dont have the most elaborate set-up so the coralline we finally got growing was kind of precious to us so we moved it to the 10g. Unfortunately, it continued eating away. Didnt know what to do with it til we found out the LFS we got it from would take back and give a discount on new livestock. Ended up getting hairy and green shrooms at a decent price from the initial $7 investment, not a bad deal; probably at least a $10 savings on the corals. Anyway, they're cool as far as eye-candy, but ours turned out to be not so reef-safe. I'm sure there are other experiences out there, so dont judge all urchins by our exp. Maybe we didnt have enough green algae for it, I just dont know. Personally, I wouldnt recommend them, but thats just from our 1 exp. Oh yeah, ours hid a lot for like a month (nocturnal maybe), but eventually started wandering around the tank in the open; never did see it on the glass:thinking:

 

[reefer1]

I have 2 in my 180, one shortpine and one tuxedo, the tuxedo is out all the time and eats algae off the glass, the shortspine does stay hidden and has eaten some coralline but has not been a problem. both are good grazers and helped with a hair algae outbreak!!! I would recommend the tuxedo.

 

[seesponge]

I have a tuxedo in a 150 gal. It is doing great eating algae. have not noticed any coralline being eaten. I would recommend a tux for a well dressed reef.

 

[enomadra]

I have a Rock Boring Urchin and he has been fine so far. He moves all over the tank from the reef to the glass and eats alge. He is very interesting to look at, but will sometimes will knock things over on the reef, but it's not too bad. I like mine

 

[kinkfish]

Can you put one in an aggresive

 

[enomadra]

I would not think it to be an issue as long as the fish were feed. I think the Trigger fish will try to eat urchin's but I am not sure.

 

[aegiale]

Mine either ate (I think ate) or destroyed a whole colony of polyps. I gave him away.

 

[booya]

Thanks for the info everyone. I may give it a try.

 

[royalshrimp]

i wouldnt:nope: