Blue Tuxedo Urchin - needs help!

[najer]

oh okay sorry I thought you meant the tank was to cold

No worries, my big tank runs at 24.5 during the winter months and up to 27 in the summer.

 

[Scottmac]

Hi all,

Thanks for the advice.
I haven't added any medication containing copper yet for the Ich on my Blue Tang, as I want to try a natural method first to avoid any possible adverse effects on inverts and corals (garlic supplement in the food, a water change and raising the temp.)

I will raise the temp slowly over the weekend.

Scott

 

[Scottmac]

Woke up this morning to finds it dead among a pile of spines

OK I am sticking to crabs, snails and shrimps from now on as they are all thriving.

 

[...]

Hey, I just realised you are the guy with the ich hippo tang! Sorry for your lost, these urchins are usually hardy, if he died though, GET RID OF THE SEA STAR, if the hardy blue tuxedo urchin died, soon enough the not so hardy sea stars will.

 

[Scottmac]

Thanks, I will keep an eye on the starfish. I have one sandsifter, one large banded serpent star and a few mini ones. They seem to be doing fine, esp the sandsifter that is very active even during the day.

 

[Kris 2020]

Woke up this morning to finds it dead among a pile of spines

OK I am sticking to crabs, snails and shrimps from now on as they are all thriving.

I’m so sorry, there is nothing sadder than a dead urchin.

 

[...]

Urchins are awesome creatures, I give you my condolences, the mini ones and the serpent will eat detritus and you can target feed em anyway. The sand sifters eats microfauna and detritus but cannot be spot fed, if you see him a lot and if he is on the glass, GET RID OF HIM, he should be under the sand if he isn't hungry although sometimes he comes out of the sand naturally.

 

[HuduVudu]

Hi, I received a blue Tux urchin over 2 days ago and it hasn't moved and is starting to shed a few spines. The spines and the tentacles in between the spines are moving however so it is alive, it just has not budged from its position on the sand so i'm afraid that it isn't getting food.

If it is losing spines it is done. Sorry

You need to ensure that your tank is the correct alkalinity. I have an older urchin and when the tank dropped in alk he was scarred from it. Thankfully he recovered but he still bears the mark from my mistake.

 

[kyleinpdx]

I wouldn’t trust those test strips, other than trusting them to be garbage. If you don’t want to/aren’t in a spot to get some higher quality test kits (salifert is great for most params and reasonably priced) see if your LFS will test your water for you.

Urchins can be used as an indicator species (canary in a coal mine) for water quality. In addition to heavy metals they do not tolerate high nitrate levels.

 

[HuduVudu]

they do not tolerate high nitrate levels.

What would you consider high nitrates .. just curious

 

[kyleinpdx]

What would you consider high nitrates .. just curious

that’s a good question! For the urchin probably 20+, which in of itself isn’t all that high, I know many folks have greatly successful tanks with no3 higher than that. Hopefully someone can come along and provide some literature or something because I’m only one data point!

 

[HuduVudu]

I am second data point with 2 tuxedos at 25+ NO3

 

[...]

Wait, salifert isn't good? Looks like more money down the drain! Anyway, people seem to be having bad luck with Blue Tuxedo Urchins right about now? Maybe a mystery virus or Covid?

 

[kyleinpdx]

I am second data point with 2 tuxedos at 25+ NO3

thats good to know. I had both a tux and a pincushion die on me in relative quick succession at about 30ppm, dropped all their spines and died within a week. Never found the root cause other than higher than previous nitrates so maybe I should change my hypothesis to “less than 30ppm”;Bookworm

 

[kyleinpdx]

Wait, salifert isn't good? Looks like more money down the drain! Anyway, people seem to be having bad luck with Blue Tuxedo Urchins right about now? Maybe a mystery virus or Covid?

no no sorry that’s my bad, lying in bed on mobile relying on autocorrect. I have edited the above. Salifert is good!

 

[HuduVudu]

Wait, salifert isn't good? Looks like more money down the drain! Anyway, people seem to be having bad luck with Blue Tuxedo Urchins right about now? Maybe a mystery virus or Covid?

It seems counter-intuitive but I am not kidding about alk.

One of my urchins makes me laugh so hard. He has a zoa shield, and we call if johnny zoaseed because of it. One day I am watching the tank it is starts to get cloudy and I see the urchin and the zoas are in a ring and his top area is exposed. I was like what the heck ... I go and check it out and this white stuff is coming out of the top of him (sic) ... wow ... I guess he was well ... randy.

 

[HuduVudu]

I also want to add, that LFS's aren't very good at providing good parameters or food for herbivores in general. It is very easy to get starving creatures that are past the point of no return and not know if it if you don't know what you are looking for.

 

[...]

I have these little rocks in my aquarium that I was given and they are 1/3 of the size of a 2 and a half inch pincushion urchin (Which I have) and he uses three and he makes a face LOL, so much for being camouflage, sorry for your loss by the way