Devilishturtles
Aquarium Advice Addict
So this is just a vent, and I guess a fair warning to others who have purple urchins.
I had these two guys as hitchhikers when I got my Florida liverock almost 4 or so years ago. They are about full grown now and they really are nice looking.
Well, I noticed that they love to munch on leathers...so I assumed I could keep them around with no problem, just don't put leathers in my tank. Besides knocking my corals around all the time, they are good liverock scavengers, they just don't ever touch the glass.
The other day, I noticed one climbing over a patch of zoos. I didn't have much time, but I thought "meh, maybe he's just lost" so I ignored it. Came back, and my ENTIRE frag of zoos are gone! I really liked these particular zoos...so I was perturbed. Last night, I noticed a huge chunk of my neon green zoos (a $25 piece that Fluff helped me find on a LFS outting) gone. Culprit, a purple urchin grazing over them.
Needless to say, I am in the process of setting up my QT tank again (a 10 gallon that I emptied and put away because I thought I was done adding new stuff for a while). They are going in there as soon as I can figure out how to transport them. I'm thinking I can coax them into a small critter carrier and into the tank without harming them.
Then I'm gettin' rid of those things as soon as I can. It's not like they don't have algae to eat! They just like corals better I guess. Could explain why my soft corals have just never done as well as the LPS.
Anyways, that's my long post about purple urchins eating my corals.
I had these two guys as hitchhikers when I got my Florida liverock almost 4 or so years ago. They are about full grown now and they really are nice looking.
Well, I noticed that they love to munch on leathers...so I assumed I could keep them around with no problem, just don't put leathers in my tank. Besides knocking my corals around all the time, they are good liverock scavengers, they just don't ever touch the glass.
The other day, I noticed one climbing over a patch of zoos. I didn't have much time, but I thought "meh, maybe he's just lost" so I ignored it. Came back, and my ENTIRE frag of zoos are gone! I really liked these particular zoos...so I was perturbed. Last night, I noticed a huge chunk of my neon green zoos (a $25 piece that Fluff helped me find on a LFS outting) gone. Culprit, a purple urchin grazing over them.
Needless to say, I am in the process of setting up my QT tank again (a 10 gallon that I emptied and put away because I thought I was done adding new stuff for a while). They are going in there as soon as I can figure out how to transport them. I'm thinking I can coax them into a small critter carrier and into the tank without harming them.
Then I'm gettin' rid of those things as soon as I can. It's not like they don't have algae to eat! They just like corals better I guess. Could explain why my soft corals have just never done as well as the LPS.
Anyways, that's my long post about purple urchins eating my corals.