Sick Urchin please help!!!

[Brennan32]

So last Friday i picked up a pink sea urchin and while i was acclimating him i noticed a small patch where he had no spines. Well today i checked on him and the spot has tripled in size and he has a big spot with no spines or tube feet all just dead looking. Its green in that spot and so if you could tell me if it will get better or if it will infect my tank that'd be great! I do have a few small tanks that i could use as a quarantine to if need be.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

[54seaweed]

A pict can help see how it looks to make a good assessment of the damage

[Brennan32]

Originally Posted by 54seaweed

A pict can help see how it looks to make a good assessment of the damage

Yes I will try and get a pic as soon as I can right now he is hiding a bit


Sent from my iPad using Aquarium Advice

[Brennan32]

Originally Posted by 54seaweed

A pict can help see how it looks to make a good assessment of the damage

Here are the best pics i can get right now. You can see the green bare patch the tank is a 155 gallon with a yellow tang,clownfish,coral beauty,and blue velvet damsel (think thats the name) and i have a cc starfish,emerald crab,coral banded shrimp,skunk shrimp and a condy anemone


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

[54seaweed]

dropping spines could be from several things , example water parameters can be off / stress / sick and dying / someone picking at him / parasites .
now if you find the skeleton turning white where the spines are missing it is most likely slowly dying , or telling you your parameters are off , or it may even be parasites,
inverts are always the first affected by drastic water quality changes,
I always experienced if it starts dropping spines rapidly they very seldom recover ,
I actually experienced one of my urchins shoot all it's spines at once , he lasted about a 1/2 hour before he passed , he was almost 5 years old I got him as a hitchhiker on some live rock , he was the size of a thumb tack head .

[Brennan32]

Originally Posted by 54seaweed

dropping spines could be from several things , example water parameters can be off / stress / sick and dying / someone picking at him / parasites .
now if you find the skeleton turning white where the spines are missing it is most likely slowly dying , or telling you your parameters are off , or it may even be parasites,
inverts are always the first affected by drastic water quality changes,
I always experienced if it starts dropping spines rapidly they very seldom recover ,
I actually experienced one of my urchins shoot all it's spines at once , he lasted about a 1/2 hour before he passed , he was almost 5 years old I got him as a hitchhiker on some live rock , he was the size of a thumb tack head .

Thank you for your help! Unfortunately he passed awhile ago now. I bought him from petco (dumb idea) and when i got it home i noticed a small patch of spines missing. This continued to get worse and worse as it went till one morning i woke up and found it laying on the bottom of the tank with no spines. So I'm guessing it was diseased at the store and then the stress of moving it sent it down hill. I have a few inverts in the tank besides the urchin and they are thriving so I'm guessing my water quality was ok but it could not have i have done a water change since then so it should have fixed anything that was wrong.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice