I've had a tuxedo Urchin in my 3 1/2 month old 34 gallon RSM for maybe 2 months now and have never had to feed him. I have about 43 lbs of good quality, pre-cured rock, and a decent amount of coraline buildup on my tank walls, so I take it there must be enough to feast on. He seems healthy (carry's a bunch of small shells for camo on his body) and moves around all over. I tried feeding him Nori a few times, and I couldn't get him to take it in with his tentacles to eat it... How do you get these things to eat?

I used to leave some on a seaweed clip cuz mine wouldn't target feed either. If he is poopin' a lot he is getting enough food. That's my indicator anyway.

"Ewww more poop, urchin must be fine"

I'm interested in this answer myself

How can you tell how much he is poopin??

Some lovely urchin poop photos

http://echinoblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/sea...ortance-of.html


your welcome


Edit: Urchin poop is still more attractive than the sea pig

Niceee...hmmm, don't know if I've ever seen this but I've never tried to specifically spot it before, so I'll have to look..All in all he is still alive after a few months and hasn't died so I take it he is healthy enough..

You can definitely see them "poop" - it's pretty obvious when it happens, it gets squirted all over the place!

If your urchin is growing, it's getting enough nutrition. They grow really fast, too: my gf's has sextupleted (is that a word?) in size in 1.5 years! If you're afraid he's not getting enough food, just use a rubberband to fasten nori to a rock, and sink it.

My my, what a loverly image THAT is

If it's that obvious I guess I haven't seen him poop, so he must be getting the bare minimum in terms of food (he is still alive and has been since I got him 2 months ago), and as I said before, carries small shells and rocks on him.

i have one that I've had for maybe a year now. Never fed it once! it just feeds 24/7 on the algae on the rocks and glass. Remember they WILL and DO eat coralline too. So if you have a bit of that, they will be satisfied. The key sign to a healthy eating tuxedo is them carrying things on their back for camo. Generally sick ones won't carry anything. So if your's is carrying stuff, then it's doing alright.

He is indeed carrying stuff so he must be doin alright...I'm done trying to hand feed him, everytime I do one of my shrimp comes and just steals it from him and I don't really have any rocks I can lift up to pin it under for him