Tired Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 Tampa Bay sent me this guy as a freebie with an order of rock. He's pretty cool, and I'm thinking about keeping him, but conventional wisdom seems to be that tuxedo urchins are the only 100% reef safe urchin species. So, what am I looking at with this guy? An occasional accidental nibble at the edge of coral, or something more serious? (If I wind up not keeping him, I'll give him to my LFS. I'm sure they can find him a home easily.) 1 Quote Link to comment
pal Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 I’ve got one that came on my live rock. So far has not bothered any of my corals, besides knocking a few over 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted December 12, 2022 Author Share Posted December 12, 2022 Hm, that's promising. What corals do you have? Any idea how big these get? Mine's about two and a half inches across, counting the spines. I already have a tuxedo urchin, but it's not quite as much of a "classic" urchin as this one. I like having things in my tank that the layperson will find interesting, which I think goes for this guy. This is the sea urchin; every cartoon urchin pretty much looks like this. And it's a lot more practical for a tank this size than a longspine urchin, but it does that same cool trick with moving its spines around to flatten itself out and get into small gaps. ...might have to risk it. Quote Link to comment
pal Posted December 12, 2022 Share Posted December 12, 2022 I’ve got a mixed reef going. Mine is now about the same size as you describe, grew from smaller than an eraser size. He does a great job cleaning my rocks and coralline on the back wall Quote Link to comment
Reefkid88 Posted December 13, 2022 Share Posted December 13, 2022 If its worth anything,I had a "nano" one and it did wonder on algae. Never bothered corals besides knocking everything over and taking Z/P's for an unwanted ride lol. Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted December 13, 2022 Share Posted December 13, 2022 11 hours ago, Tired said: Tampa Bay sent me this guy as a freebie with an order of rock. He's pretty cool, and I'm thinking about keeping him, but conventional wisdom seems to be that tuxedo urchins are the only 100% reef safe urchin species. So, what am I looking at with this guy? An occasional accidental nibble at the edge of coral, or something more serious? (If I wind up not keeping him, I'll give him to my LFS. I'm sure they can find him a home easily.) Hi, Tired. I have the same one, and have kept it for more than 5+ years, I believe. Mine has more prominent purple coloring on the spikes, but I have seen specimens with duller coloring at the LFS before. Word of caution - don't try to touch/handle these guys directly. They stick like glue to surfaces, and the spikes can *move and break off, and pieces of them can lodge under your fingernail. I learnt this the hard way and had to be rushed to the clinic to get my nail removed (under local anesthetic) and get pieces of the spike out. Not fun, and quite painful. 😞 They're reef safe and can literally scrape coralline/turf algae off the rock and leave a trail of white, unblemished rock behind. Mine usually hides in dark corners during the day, but is very active at night, moving all over my tank in search of algae. We call them purple rock urchins here. Unsure what they're named there. They don't touch coral at all. Not even nems or other sessile inverts. Only algae. If you take good care of them, they can live very long. Mine has outlasted all the other urchins I've kept before, including tuxedos and halloweens. Here's Mr. Prickles: 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted December 13, 2022 Author Share Posted December 13, 2022 Ah, that does look like the same species, that's good to know. I'll remember not to handle it, since that's what the spines are for. I hadn't noticed this listing in the "critters" section last time I looked, so either it's new or I didn't look very carefully, but here's Tampa Bay's sale entry on them. Looks like this guy might eventually get a bit big for this tank. Assuming that doesn't happen, I think I'll keep him; I actually want something to eat the coraline, so my rock won't eventually turn into one-note purple blobs. I like having some greens and whatnot around. https://tbsaltwater.com/product/purple-spined-urchin-arbacia-punctulata/ 1 Quote Link to comment
seabass Posted December 13, 2022 Share Posted December 13, 2022 15 minutes ago, Tired said: Looks like this guy might eventually get a bit big for this tank. Assuming that doesn't happen, I think I'll keep him; I actually want something to eat the coraline, so my rock won't eventually turn into one-note purple blobs. I like having some greens and whatnot around. https://tbsaltwater.com/product/purple-spined-urchin-arbacia-punctulata/ That'd be a long-spine urchin. Yours is a rock-boring urchin: https://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/tank-cleaners/rock-boring-urchins-detail Gets to be about 4" across. 1 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted December 13, 2022 Author Share Posted December 13, 2022 The second and third picture in that listing sure look like mine. Do these do much rock-boring in aquaria? I've seen wild rock-boring urchins ensconced in their own little carved-out spaces, which is cool, but maybe not something I want happening to my rockwork. Quote Link to comment
seabass Posted December 13, 2022 Share Posted December 13, 2022 1 hour ago, Tired said: Do these do much rock-boring in aquaria? Maybe some. I've never kept one. I believe they are prone to knock over coral frags and disrupt precariously balanced rockscapes. I think they prefer coralline algae to hair algae. Still, I've been tempted to keep one in my Caribbean tank. 2 Quote Link to comment
Tired Posted December 13, 2022 Author Share Posted December 13, 2022 I have a frag rack with grippy lining, and nothing in here is precariously anything, so I may have to give this guy a shot. I'll report back with what he does, I suppose. 2 Quote Link to comment
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