Urchin not moving

[Trick]

He isn't losing his spines but he just isn't sticking to anything and his spines are all stiff like he's pissed off, but he doesn't react or anything. He is just a poky ball right now. Is it dead or something? He is not losing spines and i've seen him lose spines when the temp dropped really low b/c someone unplugged the heater. any help would be great. BTW this is a new tank i just set up with everything from the old tank. Nitrates, ammonia and nitrites were tested today. they are zero.

pH: 8.0-8.4

calcium: 500

dkh: 10

magnesium: 1500

salinity: 1.024

All the corals look great.

[Trick]

up

[mmcguffi]

How long has it been since the transfer? It's probably just pissed and needs some time

[Reef Goddess]

Yeah, did you acclimate him slowly or just drop him in? Inverts are pretty sensitive to be changes.

[ajmckay]

+1 to acclimating them.

 

Also, what kind of urchin is it and have you tried observing it at night? Many urchins are nocturnal and they'll move all over at night and during the day hang around in a spot.

 

What size tank is this? Urchins need a lot of algae so check to make sure it's not starving if it's in a small tank or a tank with not much algae.

[Trick]

i'm not sure what kind of urchin it is. It is a short spined red, and white urchin. I did acclimate him in a bag. And he was not moving around at night.

[Trick]

there is plenty of coraline for him to eat as well. Ive had him for over a year now.

[Trick]

My tank is a 39 gal. cadlights

[Trick]

up

[Squared]

I think you mean "bump"?

[awpong]

Off of the discription of your urchin, I'd say perhaps Lytechinus variegatus. As long as his spines are up, he's alive. You'll know when he's dead: he'll drop all of his spines and rot within 24 hours. What's the temperature of your tank? I had to keep these guys for my biology department, and they seemed to prefer a cooler tank. We keep ours at 72-76*, a little on the chilly side for a reef.

[Squared]

actually i believe the species is tripneustes gratilla, because i just bought one of these, which is orang and white as well.

[awpong]

Hard to tell without an image. Urchins can vary to a great degree. I've seen Lytechinus variegatus in all sorts of colors. From Dark green, to bright neon pink, to half white, half red.

[Trick]

ok here's a better pic. He is not loosing his spins and i've seen him move a little since the move but right now he looks like this:

[Urchinhead]

i'm not sure what kind of urchin it is. It is a short spined red, and white urchin. I did acclimate him in a bag. And he was not moving around at night.

 

Its a most likely a Pincushion. It gets to about the size of a tennis or sometimes soft ball.

 

If its not dropping spines its not on the way out for sure. Odds are that its either suffering from temperature or salinity shock. They are very sensitive to salinity so if you didn't aclimate it very slowly its a bad thing.

 

It also doesn't eat coraline as a primary food source. It will eat it if there is nothing else and some will develop a "taste" for it but its not common. People think they eat coraline because as the urchin grazes over a rock sucking up the other algae and flora on the rock it eats the coraline as well so everyone assumes thats all it eats.

 

Try placing a small piece of Nori (unflavored) close to it and leave it there. Close as in within about 1/4" or so. If its hungry and if its ok it should move over onto it. If not you might have an ex urchin in the making.

 

A less likely cause could be a metal source in the tank like traces of copper. They are hyper sensitive to copper.

[DaJMasta]

In my experience.... that looks like he's in bad shape. Only time I see the mouth protruded like that is when they're dead.... and they don't like staying upside down, so with no tube feet out that really doesn't look good for me.

 

Yes they typically loose their spines before the die, but that looks dead to me. Take him out of the water briefly and see if it reacts, also give it a smell.

[Trick]

It reacts when i pick it up. When i transfered him to this tank about 1 week to 2 weeks ago i did it slowly. There are other inverts in the tank that are all doing great so i don't think its the copper.

[mndfreeze]

Wait, is that pic of it upside down or right side up? Is that its mouth or anus protruding because that can mean way different things. tho, normally both are bad. But protruding anus is better then mouth IMO!