Tiny Tank for Sea Urchin

[SommerBee]

Hey guys! I'm brand new to these forums--just joined to ask you all a kind of strangely specific question.

Is is possible/humane to keep a purple sea urchin in a 2 gallon tank?

I'm currently in a developmental biology lab at school, and our semester-long project involves growing purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) from larvae. At the end of the semester, I'd love to take mine home! I have a spare betta tank that I could start cycling now to prepare for it. Would it be possible to house just one urchin in there? How much space would one little guy need?


Thanks in advance!

 

[bribo12]

What species of urchin is it? Some get much larger than others. They also consume loads of algae, mostly coraline but they'll eat green hair and other bryopsis species of macro algaes as well.

 

[SommerBee]

I just found out the species--it will be Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, a purple sea urchin!

 

[Sniperhank]

Well...could simply feed it nori and do a gallon water change a week. Long as there was rock and sand in there...I'd guess it'd be doable since it'd have such minimal bioload.