Urchins

[maurwyck]

I can not get urchins to live in my tank. I have a 100 gallon tank and for some reason urchins die quickly. Don't know what I'm doing wrong.

 

[jesses89]

what are your water parameters?
and how many lbs of live rock do you have?

 

[maurwyck]

I have around 70-80lbs of live rock with plenty of algea but it's a fish only tank. This was a couple of months ago and my parameters have changed because my boyfriend wanted to overflow my wet/dry when he was playing with my tank and now I'm trying to regulate the salt level again.

 

[renogaw]

they need pretty high salinity, other than that i had 19 urchins come in as hitchikers and they survived shipping, curing, and cycling of my tank, so they can be hardy little fellas.
also, check for crabs eating them. thats how i lost about 5 of them.

 

[jon321]

Can be sensitive to wide changes in salinity. Id highly recommend drip acclimating them to your tanks conditions for a good 3 hours or more.
Jon

 

[maurwyck]

I know that there isn't anything eating them because thee live for about 2-3 days max and during that time their spines continue to fall off till they're bare.

 

[renogaw]

that's a ph problem. they will drop their spines if the ph is off

 

[maurwyck]

Thanks

 

[maurwyck]

What are the PH requirements for an urchin I couldn't find it. the guy at my lfs after I told him that three had died quickly and how (I bought 2 together and then another one) he said he had no idea why that would happen. Thought he knew what he was doing.

 

[scubaguy]

For about a week my Long Black Spiny Urchin lost its spines. It freaked me out, but I kept watch it. My wife kept telling me it was dead but I kep holding out. He has mad a full recovering and doing great now here is a link to him stressed.
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/234204/help
Scoll further down and you can see him doing a lot better. They stress for a while and lose there spines when new to the tank.

 

[renogaw]

Originally Posted by Maurwyck
What are the PH requirements for an urchin I couldn't find it. the guy at my lfs after I told him that three had died quickly and how (I bought 2 together and then another one) he said he had no idea why that would happen. Thought he knew what he was doing.
not exactly sure where i read it, and am looking for it, but it said they lose their spines from a big ph swing (and low salinity). I'll search a little more later, now i gotta get ready for work. i transfered 17 urchins from my DT to my QT for storage, and i just did the water transfer every 15 minutes, so if you didn't acclimate yours that could also be a problem.