Urchins

[wingzfan]

On this site, I noticed that for urchins it says "moniter with corals" Has anyone had problems with an urchin and corals before or will they probably be ok to put together?

 

[ophiura]

They are certainly bulldozers and will knock over or even pick up unsecured frags.
The slate pencil urchin, specifically, should not be considered reef safe. All of the others may be OK, but there is always the risk that they may chew a path through something, specifically a soft coral. I would not consider it a major risk for most urchins.

 

[reef_dart21]

I have a pincushion urchine and it never ate any of my mushrooms........only my cc starfish did. My urchin ignores the remenants of my muchrooms and gently passes by BUT i could see the urchins accidently knocking frags of coral or breaking coral off as they pass so i monitor that

 

[jpc763]

I have a "White Pincushion Urchin" (https://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11...ot_parent_id=4) and for the most part he is very cool. He cruises around on all of the rocks cleaning. He picks up all kinds of crap he finds on the sand, Shells, LR rubble, etc and keeps them on his body.
My only issue is, as Ophiura points out, he can pick up my colony of Paly's. I have had to remove the colony from his body twice now.

Other than that, he has never gone over a colony, just around.
This evening I saw him try to put a live Astrea snail on his back. The Astrea would have nothing of it.

 

[turtlegirl933]

I had one come on a piece of live rock in my 500 gal. and IT ATE MY FRAGS.

 

[nathanrudy9]

whats more reef friendly and coral friendly (hammer torch in middle of the tank)...a blue urchin or white urchin both would be 1.5-2 inches.

 

[ophiura]

I would get a blue tuxedo.
HOWEVER, please note that urchins are delicate, like seastars, and the tank should be mature with very good parameters. They need a long acclimation, and the specific gravity should be 1.025-1.026.