Black Spiney Urchin

[John Evans]

I have had this urchin for nearly three months and yet he has lost all his spines over the past two or three days. I have seen my Toby Valentine Puffer have the odd peck at him but he didn't go near him before.
The other fish I have in the tank (190l trigon) are green chromis, clown (2) and a yellow tang.

PH and Nitrites ok, although Nitrates a little high at the moment.

Any ideas to help the urchin recover or what may have caused the problem.

 

[cmor1701d]

How high is "a little high"?
Please post all water parameters:
Temp
pH
Alk
Ca
Mg
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
PO4

I lost an urchin when my ph and Alk were out of whack. It started with it losing its spines. That is a sign of stress that they rarely recover from.

 

[Ziggy953]

It is not uncommon for an urchin to drop it's spines when it is stressed. If you can pinpoint the issue (probably water related) and get it corrected it can recover. As Cmor pointed out get us some numbers on your system and lets figure out what's going on.