Blue Tuxedo urchin breeding success!

[Smarkow]

This is awesome! How fast do they grow?

 

[Saiaman01]

Yep. Temperature shock is easy and harmless to our broodstock urchins. Some of the broodstock urchins are loaned to me by other hobbyist, and they expect them back

Very interesting, do you have any litterature or description of this method ? thanks a lot

 

[Levinson]

This is amazing!!

 

[Smarkow]

Yep. Temperature shock is easy and harmless to our broodstock urchins. Some of the broodstock urchins are loaned to me by other hobbyist, and they expect them back

Wait so you heat (or cool?) some seawater of a known volume and then add it to a tank of known volume? Or you just turn up the heater a degree? Shock sort of implies quick. Curious

 

[Jcar]

Do you think an urchin spawn will crash a tank? I have a few and one spawned for a few min. Def made the tank water cloudy. It's only a 55 gallon reef tons of fish. I took him out and put him in a tub so he could finish out of the tank. Should I be concerned? I'm doing a normal water change tomorrow regardless. Glad I caught this guy in the act I don't want any problems with this tank. He's an urchin from Florida live rock if that gives anyone a better idea of what is happening. Milky stringy substance coming from the top of him that cloudy up the water good. All the clams opened up further after it happened, fish have had no reaction.

 

[Steg]

It's been a while since our last batch of urchins, and I've been trying several times this past year to do it again. Turns out there are a lot of factors involved in urchin aquaculture. Broodstock health is crucial, including diet and conditioning. There are still several factors that I have not worked out, so each batch is still a bit of a gamble.
On Friday May 17th, I induced a spawn with the urchins in my office tank. These urchins are from my first batch, making this batch second generation aquacultured. Within two hours, you can see that I have variable cell division, probably due to eggs being collected from two separate females. I think they look a bit like snowflakes at this point

​

A few hours after, the mass of cells have developed into spheres.

​

Initially, the urchins will grow two arms, followed by two more arms. Here we can see two fully developed arms, and two shorter arms growing in.

​

Video here -

By day 9 or 10, the urchins now have 8 arms as seen in this video

​

Here's a short clip at day 11 or 12

By day 13, we start to see urchins starting to settle out of the water. In this video, you can see the stages of settlement. The urchins have what look like two tube feed that will grab hold of a surface, then they molt and leave behind their arms. At this point, they are just a ball with tube feet. They will quickly develop spines along their bottom, which migrate out over the surface of the urchin. This process is quick, taking only a few hours based on our observations.


At this age, they are the same size as your average copepod!

​

Then within a week, their spines become better developed, and they resemble the familiar urchin look.

​

After a few weeks, they'll really start to grow and color up.

We expect this batch to be ready by August. After two months, they are about pea size, as seen here.

Can I get purchase instructions

 

[cmanner]

@chad vossen
Hi Chad, really enjoyed looking through this thread. I'd like to point you here and see if you have any suggestions for me, and also to echinobase - which if you dont know about it, i suspect you will enjoy.

 

[Rovert]

It's been a while since our last batch of urchins, and I've been trying several times this past year to do it again. Turns out there are a lot of factors involved in urchin aquaculture. Broodstock health is crucial, including diet and conditioning. There are still several factors that I have not worked out, so each batch is still a bit of a gamble.
On Friday May 17th, I induced a spawn with the urchins in my office tank. These urchins are from my first batch, making this batch second generation aquacultured. Within two hours, you can see that I have variable cell division, probably due to eggs being collected from two separate females. I think they look a bit like snowflakes at this point

​

A few hours after, the mass of cells have developed into spheres.

​

Initially, the urchins will grow two arms, followed by two more arms. Here we can see two fully developed arms, and two shorter arms growing in.

​

Video here -

By day 9 or 10, the urchins now have 8 arms as seen in this video

​

Here's a short clip at day 11 or 12

By day 13, we start to see urchins starting to settle out of the water. In this video, you can see the stages of settlement. The urchins have what look like two tube feed that will grab hold of a surface, then they molt and leave behind their arms. At this point, they are just a ball with tube feet. They will quickly develop spines along their bottom, which migrate out over the surface of the urchin. This process is quick, taking only a few hours based on our observations.


At this age, they are the same size as your average copepod!

​

Then within a week, their spines become better developed, and they resemble the familiar urchin look.

​

After a few weeks, they'll really start to grow and color up.

We expect this batch to be ready by August. After two months, they are about pea size, as seen here.

Utterly amazing! Put me down for two when the kiddies are ready to be re-homed. ;-)

 

[cmanner]

Do you think an urchin spawn will crash a tank? I have a few and one spawned for a few min. Def made the tank water cloudy. It's only a 55 gallon reef tons of fish. I took him out and put him in a tub so he could finish out of the tank. Should I be concerned? I'm doing a normal water change tomorrow regardless. Glad I caught this guy in the act I don't want any problems with this tank. He's an urchin from Florida live rock if that gives anyone a better idea of what is happening. Milky stringy substance coming from the top of him that cloudy up the water good. All the clams opened up further after it happened, fish have had no reaction.

Milky stringy substance is sperm. The clams likely opened up because they are eating it. Idk if it can crash a tank but it certainly can gobble up a lot of the available oxygen.

 

[Liquorsnurf]

It's been a while since our last batch of urchins, and I've been trying several times this past year to do it again. Turns out there are a lot of factors involved in urchin aquaculture. Broodstock health is crucial, including diet and conditioning. There are still several factors that I have not worked out, so each batch is still a bit of a gamble.
On Friday May 17th, I induced a spawn with the urchins in my office tank. These urchins are from my first batch, making this batch second generation aquacultured. Within two hours, you can see that I have variable cell division, probably due to eggs being collected from two separate females. I think they look a bit like snowflakes at this point

​

A few hours after, the mass of cells have developed into spheres.

​

Initially, the urchins will grow two arms, followed by two more arms. Here we can see two fully developed arms, and two shorter arms growing in.

​

Video here -

By day 9 or 10, the urchins now have 8 arms as seen in this video

​

Here's a short clip at day 11 or 12

By day 13, we start to see urchins starting to settle out of the water. In this video, you can see the stages of settlement. The urchins have what look like two tube feed that will grab hold of a surface, then they molt and leave behind their arms. At this point, they are just a ball with tube feet. They will quickly develop spines along their bottom, which migrate out over the surface of the urchin. This process is quick, taking only a few hours based on our observations.


At this age, they are the same size as your average copepod!

​

Then within a week, their spines become better developed, and they resemble the familiar urchin look.

​

After a few weeks, they'll really start to grow and color up.

We expect this batch to be ready by August. After two months, they are about pea size, as seen here.

That's really cool to see what the whole process entails.

 

[Andreas' Reef]

This is insane! You're doing great work for the hobby!

 

[Sleeping Giant]

 

[prakashaman717]

Hey Chad,
I really like your work. Can you share me the detailed information or the protocol. I am Masters Student and currently working on the research of sea urchin breeding and its culture maitainance.