EMERGENCY urchin help!

[ineedhelp1234]

Hey guys I got this urchin about a month ago. I noticed today some spines are lost.

Its been hanging out at the front of my glass the past week or so near the top, thats all it does. It was hanging out at the refugium pump and touching it (small pump, 100gph). Could this have torn some out?

Parameters:

Calcium: 395ppm
Mag: 1275ppm
Alk: 7.4dKH (pretty low but sps is fine)
Nitrates: 0ppm (tested with Red Sea kit twice)
Nitrites: 0ppm
Ammonia: 0ppm (tested by APi, not the best but I dont see why there would be ammonia)
Phosphates: 0ppm (also tested by API)

I run a protein skimmer and refugium w/ chaeto and bio media on this tank. Lots of live rock and sand.

Theres algae in this tank but its all pretty much dead. I tried to feed him nori but he just lets go of it.

Yesterday I added 15 snails (10 astrae and 5 cerith). Stock is 2 clownfish and 1 lawnmower blenny, 40 gallon tank.


What's wrong??

 

[ineedhelp1234]

I think its osmotic shock, I added like 3 galLons of RODI water yesterday immeDiately (no ATO)

Can he recover?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Tough to say, depends on how many spines it lost. Did the spine loss happen right after the water addition? You might want to post over in the general invert forum to find out what artificial foods this species of urchin will eat.

Jay

 

[Ribo15]

To me he looks fine? I’ve added urchins (rather quickly sometimes) and they lose a couple spikes maybe from the stress but it’s never lead to their demise as long as params are good! They need healthy amount of algae to munch on.

 

[ineedhelp1234]

To me he looks fine? I’ve added urchins (rather quickly sometimes) and they lose a couple spikes maybe from the stress but it’s never lead to their demise as long as params are good! They need healthy amount of algae to munch on.

He lost pretty much the majority overnight, just sitting in a circle of soines and wavIng around his last few. I think hes a goner.

 

[ineedhelp1234]

Tough to say, depends on how many spines it lost. Did the spine loss happen right after the water addition? You might want to post over in the general invert forum to find out what artificial foods this species of urchin will eat.

Jay

As far as i know yes it happened right after the water addition. I know urchIns eat nori thats why i fed it to him. He lost a ton of spines overnight and is sitting in a circle of them

 

[Ribo15]

Yeah sadly I think he’s a goner if that’s what he looks like now. Urchins and most inverts are quite fragile when it comes to large salinity swings. Poor guy. Sorry for your loss

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

As far as i know yes it happened right after the water addition. I know urchIns eat nori thats why i fed it to him. He lost a ton of spines overnight and is sitting in a circle of them

Yes, when they drop all of their spines (or even a majority of them) they are done for. Urchins have a vascular system that is open to the seawater and they do not handle changes in salinity well at all....sorry.

Jay