Are urchins reef safe..

[ramasezz]

Hi everyone.. I have 2 short spined urchins.. they keep climbing on my zoa colony..... are they reef safe and will this constant nuisance they must be creating for the zoas, stress them into closing their polyps.. there's immense knowledge and experience with you guys and I would like to draw from it to be able to decide if I need to bid adieu to the urchins...

Cheers, Ram

 

[Roy 9121]

I wouldn't put an urchin in my tank. They are like little bulldozers knocking things over. But as far as i know, that's the worst they do.

 

[morpheas]

I've seen my tuxedo carrying around a "frag" of zoas he made himself. Haven't seen him bother anything else though...

 

[redfishbluefish]

Urchins are algae eaters.....similar to starfish, they are probably looking for food that isn't be supplied. How big a tank do you have to support two urchins? Might want to feed algae to feed the hungry guys.

Yes, they are bulldozers, but are reef safe.

 

[ramasezz]

Oh yeah.. tank info.. 220 gallon DT with another 80 in the sump with aragonite sand fit substrate and 220 pounds of live rock....and I have plenty of algae, spirulina and seaweed food products.. pellets, flakes and sheets to feed my livestock.. tanks about 7 months old.. prior to that I had a 55g which is now my QT...

 

[GoVols]

I've seen my tuxedo carrying around a "frag" of zoas he made himself. Haven't seen him bother anything else though...

+1
I alway have a Royal (Tuxedo) urchin in my reef. They are the best part of an algae CUC. Algae eating machines.
All my corals are encrusted to the live rock or puttied in, so nothing gets bulldozed

They always have a small piece of Zoas on their back for camouflage and have spread small Zoa colonies all over my live rock.

A cuc member that truly earns their keep.

I pass on the long spine'd ones. They get too big. JMO...

Love them Royals