black spiny urchins...

[reefgeek]

Ok... Situation, Black spiny urchin was brought home by wife. I hated to tell her no, and quarantined for a week, and put him in the tank. Well through life, and 2 kids, I havent had much time to read up on them. I poked into my Marine invertibrates book, and it says they are reef safe as long as they are well fed. Well, Hes in the main tank and doing awesome, but I have some concerns. As I do more research on him, it says he may grow a fondness of polyps, and perhaps some other softies. What are your thoughts on these AWESOME looking interesting inverts ?

Git rid of em
or
keep him

RG

[dakar]

Can you post a pic of the guy? I have a baby long spine urchin in my nano, he happily moves from rock to rock mowing down coraline as fast as it can grow. Even hits the glass on occassion and leaves racing stripes on the glass where there used to be algae...

IMO - keep'm as long as he's not knocking things around too much. They can be bulldozers.

[davejnz]

If its a Diadema sp. long-spined Urchin then you got yourself one of the best algae eaters there is for a reef tank.The first pic is a Caribbean Diadema sp.

This pic is a nocturnal Caribbean Urchin.It's a good algae grazer too but because its nocturnal,it doesnt graze all day like the one above.

[reefgeek]

I have heard that they can be DOZERS... But he seems to be Ok, and not knocking anything around (yet). Very cool looking and it is a DIADEMA it has really awesome electric blue dots along its body, and is just cruisin. I will post a pic of it later when my wife gets home with the digital cams. Ill let him run, and well see how he does.

RG

[carpenterwrasse]

I just picked up 2 more urchins for a total of 5 in my tank they eat algae like crazy. I have had 1 rock knocked over by them but no big prob....I don't know which species they are with the excetion of 1 I think he's a west indys pincushion...He has a black body and bright white spines

[davejnz]

They can knock over corals/frags that aren't secured to the aquascape.Its a good idea to mount all of your stoney corals with epoxy/superglue so you don't have to worry about them falling into another coral and stinging/killing it.

[carpenterwrasse]

here is the best pics i got

[Blk_Lotus]

The one complaint I have regarding the Black Longspine urchin I picked up about a month ago is the mess he's making as he breaks off spines working his way down into the crevices with all the goodies in them. Needle sharp barbed spines aren't exactly what you want lying all over your tank when you go in to do a quick clean. However, I will admit that I'm overjoyed it actually eats an invasive version of sponge that I have had some trouble dealing with otherwise. Also, Urchins and starfish are just plain fun to watch when they're cruising across the glass.

[karlgriffin]

Ok, we just acclimated a Diadema, I dropped him in the tank and now I am concerned about the spines and our Cortez ray. Am I being a worry wort or do the spines pose a threat to the ray? Anyone have each in their tank?