Urchin!!!

[Khij159753]

My Halloween urchin has been sittin in 1 spot for the past like 4 days :/ he moves a tiny bit and his spines will still move and prick up whenever my blenny bumps into him. Idk what to do.
My parameters are
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-< 5
ph-8
I don't have the other test kit but I've been dosing calcium. Please help. Idk what it is but ever sense I got him a month and a half ago or whatever he loses spines here and there. He has bad days and good days but he pulls through. If anyone can help me figure out what's wrong that'd be great.

 

[Khij159753]

Can anyone help me?

 

[Rosesrblu1]

How many spines is he losing. Mass spine loss is a sign of poor water quality. Some of my urchins don't move that much, but my new one, pink pin cushion is always on the move. My pencil moves the least and so does the rock boring urchin.

Good luck

 

[Khij159753]

He doesn't lose alot of spines at once but he's always just lost one here an there. So don't worry if he's just in 1 spot all the time? What other causes besides poor water quality can
Effect their health?

 

[Rosesrblu1]

A spine lost here and their is normal if they are bumping into stuff. Not to worry. The other thing could be he doesn't have enough to forage for, how old is the tank?

 

[Rosesrblu1]

Also, pick up a calcium kit if your dosing for it. You don't know what the level is to be dosing if you don't test. If its not a reef, you don't have to dose, and even them, most or all of what you need is in your salt mix. I only dose my calcium a couple of days before a water change, and even then its a small amount.

 

[Khij159753]

Okay. And yes it's a fairly new tank. A couple months old and I've had him sense the beggining. He was the first thing added to my tank. I know I didn't do my research.

 

[Khij159753]

So all if his spines are Layin down unless he's touched. Is that a bad sign?

 

[Rosesrblu1]

That part I'm not familiar with. Mine all have spines up, sorry.

 

[Khij159753]

Okay. Well hopefully he pulls through