Urchin

[stusclan]

I got a small black spiny urchin on my live rock a few months ago. It seems to have gotten much bigger and has decided to attach itself to my xenia frag. Is this thing eating it? I tried to remove it, but its tight on the rock the xenia is on. What do I do, or should I just leave it?

 

[electrikat]

Mine is about 10 inches across and I've had him for over a year. He has never eaten anything but algae in my reef tank. He will crawl over the rocks to eat the algae but has never actually hurt any of the corals.

 

[copi]

Holy cow I've got at least 6 of these that 'hiked on my live rock... they're going to get to be 10 inches!?! Me thinks that will be a bit much for 30 gallons.

Should I remove some now or let them grow a bit & then offer them up to the LFS (and will they even want them?)

 

[stusclan]

Thank Kat - it has gone from the size of a pencil eraser to about 2". I just don't know that much about them. Can't wait to see what it looks like at 10".

 

[electrikat]

There is a picture of it in one of my gallery pictures. His body alone is probably 2 to 3 " across.

 

[quarryshark]

I have a large one too, cool creature. When he is hungry, he comes to the front corner of the tank for a nori strip.

 

[dianeww]

he comes to the front corner of the tank for a nori strip
[/quote]
Will a nori strip satisfy them?

Or will he eat my corals?

 

[JPloman]

They grow like crazy. I started with mine about four months ago when he was about the size of a dime... he is now about the size of a silver dollar or a bit larger. They don't eat anything in my tank but algae and have basically starved those fish in my tank that do eat algae.

 

[dianeww]

Should we target feed them with some nori?

 

[mykpoz]

i have 2 pencil urchins I am thinking about doing something with... they eat so much coraline its not funny...

 

[dianeww]

I just tried to hold a piece of nori on a clip next to an urchin and he walked in the other direction (rather quickly, too!) Have I been insulted? Is there a way to target feed these guys?

 

[Kam]

I have 6 that hitch hiked on my LR. The only negative I can say about them is that they are mini bulldozers and will knock over small frags, so I had to make sure all my frags were attached to larger rocks. The second bad thing is that I barely have any coralline algae. They eat it all and eat it fast. I am going to give a couple to some local reef friends in trade for frags. Six is too many for a 120 IMO.