urchins out of control

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fualku

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Oct 12, 2004
Messages
28
Location
south florida
about a month ago i notices i had a little black urchin about the size of a pea. over the last couple weeks a saw another one and then another one. I looked in my tank today and i have 10. The biggest one is about the size of a dime without the spines. Do these things repoduce like this? Are they concidered pests?
 
I feel your pain as I have at least two(pea size) that came with my live rock. I can handle one or two but dont want to lose my coralline growth. Just to add to this question - Is there anything to feed them to keep them away from the coralline?
 
I now have 13 and the biggest ones are now the size of a quarter. I'm going to start getting rid of them. They are cool though. The first pic is not very good but you can count six.
 

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Is there anything to feed them to keep them away from the coralline?
Try feeding then little nori strips. I have 4 that have been in my system for well over a year with no issues.
If they do munch a bid of coraline, don't sweat it much. They will poop it out and it will spread even more.
IMO urchins have had bum rap as far as depleting coraline, I think it is much overblown..
Very entertaining animals IMO.
If you are concerned about the number of them in your system, take all but a couple to your LFS, I'm sure they could find homes for them. :wink:
 
who cares if they eat coraline, all that stuff does is impede the spread of encrusting corals so it takes longer for them to spread. consider it a blessing to have something that eats that stuff.
 
THats AWESOME...
I have 2 blue tuxes in my tank and don't notice any missing purple stuff, it grows back so fast..
If it's too many i know your LFS will take em..
 
I went through the same thing with my lr. I ended up with 11. I gave some to friends and some to the lfs. They grow at an amazing rate. I had to part with mine because they would knock over my lps's and the smaller coral rocks.
 
I think that urchins are supposed to be algae eaters primarily. They might take some coraline, but I think their preference is algae.
 
I wish I could get cool stuff in my LR. I get worms, and thats it. I have some interesting stuff growing all over the place, but very little for live stock.

Sorry for the little rant, but I'd give them away.
 
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