Dead Tuxedo Urchin

[RobertTheNurse]

Hey everyone,

Was doing some reading on urchins and decided to buy one after I got some advice on here on how to combat a little hair algea around my tank. Instantly fell in love with it. Bought it at a Big Als (live in Canada). Anywho, prolly my fav addition to my tank...loved watching it and wondering where I'd find it the following day.

Anywho, this morning i found it in a rather odd place in between the rock and glass...thought "strange" felt it was stuck, so I moved it and it fell to the bottom. Hadn't moved AT ALL. Then noticed all the "spikes" that came off, and was lime uh oh that's not good.

Before I added it I tested all my water...parameters are (and still are)

SG 1.024
Temp 77
Ammonia 0
Phos 0.01
Nitrates 5
Alk 9.5

My partner and I really liked this little dude, and before I get another one I wanna figure out of theres something I did wrong, or, did I just get a bad one? I only acclimated it for prolly 30 to 40 mins...tested the stores water and their SG was 1.026 (didn't test anything else). I also contacted the store to tell them as well...was a little ticked...everything else in my tank is doing well...especially my corals...mostly stick to softies and inverts...few clowns a goby and RG.

 

[Scorpius]

I've found urchins to be more sensitive as compared to other inverts. I've personally given up on keeping them due to the tuxedo urchins voracious affinity at anilating coraline algae.

 

[Difrano]

It may have starved, if you had a little GHA is not enough for an urchin, in my tank I grow GHA and all kind of algae to keep the urchin happy.

 

[Jedi Knghit]

How did you acclimate it and how long did it last in your tank?

 

[RobertTheNurse]

How did you acclimate it and how long did it last in your tank?

Sadly only for 45 mins...i should have investigated more as I should have acclimated for like 2 hours.

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Sadly only for 45 mins...i should have investigated more as I should have acclimated for like 2 hours.

Lasted for 2 days...

 

[RobertTheNurse]

It may have starved, if you had a little GHA is not enough for an urchin, in my tank I grow GHA and all kind of algae to keep the urchin happy.

No...im having a GHA bloom. Plenty of that..

 

[ReeferWarrant]

I bought mine from Algae Barn and love it. I didnt acclimate it for 2 hours either, but I definitely slowly added tank water to it for about 1/2 -1 hour.

Did you do anything to stress it out? I did a 30% water change that mine did not like at all... It started spawning but is still chugging a long. Your parameters seem fine though, and I had horrible PO4 (.25) and Nitrate (40 ppm) levels recently with it so I doubt those are an issue.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Was it shipped or did you pick it up in person? It took me 3 tuxedo urchins shipped to me to get a winner. The first one arrived mostly dead (lived about a day, appearance was poor from day one), the second arrived completely dead (almost all spines already gone), but the third one was a wild man from day one (was crawling all around the jar when I unboxed him, tube feet fully extended, beautiful color). I have to wonder if they often don't ship well?

 

[ReeferWarrant]

@Calm Blue Ocean, they stress out easy and when they do foul the water and die. My wife was scolding me when I bought one because her class in Hawaii would collect stuff for their class room and their teacher was adamant about no urchins because they foul the water when stressed.

 

[eggplantparrot]

Hey everyone,

Was doing some reading on urchins and decided to buy one after I got some advice on here on how to combat a little hair algea around my tank. Instantly fell in love with it. Bought it at a Big Als (live in Canada). Anywho, prolly my fav addition to my tank...loved watching it and wondering where I'd find it the following day.

Anywho, this morning i found it in a rather odd place in between the rock and glass...thought "strange" felt it was stuck, so I moved it and it fell to the bottom. Hadn't moved AT ALL. Then noticed all the "spikes" that came off, and was lime uh oh that's not good.

Before I added it I tested all my water...parameters are (and still are)

SG 1.024
Temp 77
Ammonia 0
Phos 0.01
Nitrates 5
Alk 9.5

My partner and I really liked this little dude, and before I get another one I wanna figure out of theres something I did wrong, or, did I just get a bad one? I only acclimated it for prolly 30 to 40 mins...tested the stores water and their SG was 1.026 (didn't test anything else). I also contacted the store to tell them as well...was a little ticked...everything else in my tank is doing well...especially my corals...mostly stick to softies and inverts...few clowns a goby and RG.

Which Big Als?

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Which Big Als?

I dont want to name drop any specific stores in a bad way, as, I feel even though I may of received a bad seed, I'm not 100% convinced, so I don't want to throw anyone under the bus. It could be a combination of many things. I bought 2 clowns from this particular store, the staff are nice and helpful. Just more cheesed this one didn't make the cut. Apprehensive on another one. Need to do something to help keep the GHA in check. My snails just dont wanna touch the long stuff. Do i chance an emerald crab? Just hear horror stories on these taking a chunk outta corals. And I can't find any tailspot blennies (but even so id have to quarentine etc).

 

[RobertTheNurse]

Was it shipped or did you pick it up in person? It took me 3 tuxedo urchins shipped to me to get a winner. The first one arrived mostly dead (lived about a day, appearance was poor from day one), the second arrived completely dead (almost all spines already gone), but the third one was a wild man from day one (was crawling all around the jar when I unboxed him, tube feet fully extended, beautiful color). I have to wonder if they often don't ship well?

Picked it up in person. It was chilling on the aquarium glass. I found it one day on my powerhead? Maybe it got a little diced?