Urchin Issues....

[Nitrate]

How many Urchins can a 150 gal tank with 180 lbs of LR support? Other than the urchins I only have one snail, one general Starfish, and one hermit.

Some time back I put 2 long spined and one pincushion in my tank and I have recently found several small long spined urchins that must have hitchhiked on my rock. If 6 or 7 is too many to have then I would rather keep the smaller fellas and take the big guys back.

Any thoughts?

 

[XXFirefighter]

I would not keep more then 2 maybe 3...
If it were me I'd keep one of each...
Unless you want your rock STRIPPED !
And grab another dozen hermits, dozen snails. Different kind. 2 turbos and some nassirus to stir yoru sand. And some bumble bees, and what ever else he's got to help clean

 

[jamal-188]

I agree, I love urchins but they stripe all the coraline off the LR. If you don't care about that I think you'd be safe with that many in your size tank as long as you don't add too many other clen up critters.

 

[quarryshark]

I will slightly disagree. I have 4 in my tank and my coraline is fine. BUT....I do target feed them several times a week. My longspine and pincusions spend a lot of time on the glass eating algea. Maybe they have a taste for it now with the nori I feed them.

 

[Nitrate]

I cant have snails because of my puffer and Ive been waiting for weeks for my LFS to get more hermits.

As for the stripping issue, I think the rough and porous nature of the liverocks.com rock keeps them from stripping it down too far cause you really have to look hard to see where they have been on the rock. I just dont want any of them to starve!!

Most of the Urchins I have found so far were tiny so I didnt worry too much about it, but I found a new one today thats pretty big for a hitchhiker. They must grow really fast.

 

[quarryshark]

Try feeding them nori, it really works.

 

[Sparky]

I agree, I love urchins but they stripe all the coraline off the LR.

That is the exact reason I sent mine off to the LFS. Mine came in as a hitchiker on live rock. It was about the size of a dime and in 4 months it grew so loarge and was "stripping" the coraline from my rocks. I have spent a lot of time trying to get it to grow and it would "eat" it up in no time. So now it has a new home.

Mike

 

[Hara]

one other thing...not everyone is real concerned about coraline in their tanks. If you would rather see interesting sea life like your urchins, dont worry about it, keep them all and just feed them.

I do not have urchins in my reeftank due to the corals, but I have them in almost every other tank I have because I enjoy them. Funny thing is my reeftank has no coraline algae whatsoever, yet the other tanks do. I have also heard that the urchins will help spread the spores for the coraline. My LFS keeps an eye out for interesting urchins on his sale list he gets in every week and then just calls and says he has something for me to come see Last night I saw a huge pretty slate urchin he got for me, but I wont get it til next week as it had just come in. I think they are very interesting creatures.

sorry for rambling...

 

[sumphead]

Hara said it right. I have serveral urchins as well and my coraline growth is astonishing. All my urchins were hitchhikers that I discovered small an cute (pencil eraser size) Berfore I could blink they were golf balls and now even bigger. It is all in the matter of your preference.

Hara: Never noticed your sig before, How Prophetic

Oh as a side note:

And grab another dozen hermits, dozen snails. Different kind. 2 turbos and some nassirus to stir yoru sand. And some bumble bees, and what ever else he's got to help clean

In a 150 Gallon tank with 180 lbs of rock, if you know how many snails you have you dont have enough.

R-

 

[quarryshark]

Yup Urchins are a blast. They do some pretty funny stuff for a ball of spines.

 

[Nitrate]

QS, I had one of my long spined and my pincushion fighting over my clip yesterday. Was very fun to watch.

In a 150 Gallon tank with 180 lbs of rock, if you know how many snails you have you dont have enough

Tell that to my puffer!!!

BTW Found another good sized urchin today while doing a water change, there must be dozens of them in there.

 

[quarryshark]

Ya, that might be too many. Maybe your LFS would take a couple.