Urchin question

[NatureFish]

Is it safe to add a urchin to a 40 gallon with a pair of clowns and some other peaceful nano fish and inverts? If so, what about pincushion urchins? I'm planning my first future saltwater tank so if they are hard to take care of that will probably not end well...


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[Sniperhank]

They'll need algae in the tank to eat, so I'd hold off and wait til the tank matures. Pincushions and tuxedos are easy and reef safe.

[Nat_a126]

Pincushions are awesome and easy to care for. They need great water quality and will lose their spines if the water isn't. They eat coralline algae and other algae, but if you don't have enough of it, you can feed them nori.


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[Autumnsky]

Mine is with a pair of Clowns and they pay him no attention at all. They can really eat a lot. I get fresh macroalgae for mine about every 3-4 weeks, he is in a mature tank and tank has live rock. They will wear little things on their shell like shells, rubble, algae and frags btw! Oh and they will inadvertently knock over things that aren't glued down so plan ahead.

Mine will eat a 1.5" x 3" piece of seaweed treat every 5 days.

Though I recently started giving him a little more on some occasions and then some smaller chunks a little more often, differing on times and amounts since I think it seems more like a natural situation.

I use a clip and just pinch the corner of the piece. He will even grab it with the little feely things sometimes when he is in the front of the tank.

I love that little guy. He has eaten all colors and varieties of Macroalgae I have found, not that I really wanted him to, he just looks hungry so I give him more. Chaeto, Fern, Red and Green Grape Caulerpa, Several kinds of Gracilaria, Sea Lettuce. I tried growing it but I cna't get any of them to grow at a fast enough pace to make up for what he can eat. So I have a tiny MacroAlgae garden in a 5G now.




- look here. lol I thought this would be enough for him to eat in a month after I first got him.



He ate ALL of that except about 5 leaves after a couple days of carrying it around, over night (lights out ~12 hours) it was eaten.

[NatureFish]

He's so pretty! They should have called those things sea porcupines!

[Autumnsky]

I have tended to use gloves if I have to move him but no issues yet and the lfs used bare hands.

It is really neat. I guess I am easily fascinated.

[alyxandria]

Originally Posted by Autumnsky

I have tended to use gloves if I have to move him but no issues yet and the lfs used bare hands.

It is really neat. I guess I am easily fascinated.

Sorry just browsing through and saw this. Funny because my LFS puts on gloves just to get saltwater SNAILS haha. They're a freshwater fish store so they're afraid of the saltwater tank lol. I just want to say "Here move over - I'll get this done in a quarter of the time!"

(Apologies that's a bit off topic lol)

[54seaweed]

Originally Posted by Autumnsky

I have tended to use gloves if I have to move him but no issues yet and the lfs used bare hands.

It is really neat. I guess I am easily fascinated.

you never held 1 bare handed ? they are so neat the way they move around they actually tickle ,

they are indeed interesting you would think a creature with such sharp spikes to be aggressive , but they are the most docile critter ,

the fun part is hand feeding put a good size chunk of shrimp in the palm of your hand and let the urchin climb into your hand to eat it , watching all those tiny tenticals working the shrimp in it's mouth ,

I remember when I first started one of my tanks I had like 15 hitchhike in with my live rock they were so tiny about the size of a penny , I sold all of them off except for 2 now one is about 3inch in size and the other is around 4 in , they are little thieves as they like to steal coral and wear it , on occasion I'll catch a small goby resting between the spikes just taking a ride , it's funny seeing snails and hermits sneaking a ride ,

if I remember right I believe the urchin is in the star fish family , I used to get upset seeing all my corals on the urchin but I soon learned that 1 tiny coral would turn into many more tiny coral , the urchin is a natural farmer
tuxedo urchins and long spiny urchins are reef safe pencil urchins are not as they tend to knock everything over

certain fish will eat urchins triggers and puffers ect but most other fish learned to live in harmony

they are fun to watch fun to hold on occasion fun to watch eat they are interesting creatures indeed

[Autumnsky]

Originally Posted by 54seaweed

you never held 1 bare handed ? they are so neat the way they move around they actually tickle ,

they are indeed interesting you would think a creature with such sharp spikes to be aggressive , but they are the most docile critter ,

the fun part is hand feeding put a good size chunk of shrimp in the palm of your hand and let the urchin climb into your hand to eat it , watching all those tiny tenticals working the shrimp in it's mouth ,

I remember when I first started one of my tanks I had like 15 hitchhike in with my live rock they were so tiny about the size of a penny , I sold all of them off except for 2 now one is about 3inch in size and the other is around 4 in , they are little thieves as they like to steal coral and wear it , on occasion I'll catch a small goby resting between the spikes just taking a ride , it's funny seeing snails and hermits sneaking a ride ,

if I remember right I believe the urchin is in the star fish family , I used to get upset seeing all my corals on the urchin but I soon learned that 1 tiny coral would turn into many more tiny coral , the urchin is a natural farmer
tuxedo urchins and long spiny urchins are reef safe pencil urchins are not as they tend to knock everything over

certain fish will eat urchins triggers and puffers etc. but most other fish learned to live in harmony

They are fun to watch fun to hold on occasion fun to watch eat they are interesting creatures indeed

Sounds fun but there are possibilities of me getting injured and I can't risk that right now. I give him his seaweed by hand very carefully.

Seems in the olden days at Sea World they had a petting "zoo" aqua exhibit we played with starfish Urchins, and not sure what else. They are soooo interesting.