Flesh eating Pincushion Urchin?

JediCruz · Jul 14, 2021

So, I have pretty big 3”-4” pincushion urchin. He’s been doing a pretty good job at eating algae. But I’ve seen that goes over some brain coral and cyphastrea, feeding on the algae at the edges of the coral but ends up also “eating” the flesh of the corals at the edges. Has anyone seen this type of behavior? I do also feed the urchin Nori sheets when he’s at the top of the glass for a while which he devours.

CanuckReefer · Jul 14, 2021

JediCruz said:
So, I have pretty big 3”-4” pincushion urchin. He’s been doing a pretty good job at eating algae. But I’ve seen that goes over some brain coral and cyphastrea, feeding on the algae at the edges of the coral but ends up also “eating” the flesh of the corals at the edges. Has anyone seen this type of behavior? I do also feed the urchin Nori sheets when he’s at the top of the glass for a while which he devours.

My urchins ( pincushion and short spine black) will creep up to the edge of my softie or lps but never hit it. How big the tank and how long running?

JediCruz · Jul 15, 2021

CanuckReefer said:
My urchins ( pincushion and short spine black) will creep up to the edge of my softie or lps but never hit it. How big the tank and how long running?

The tank is a 90 gallon and it’s been up for 9 1/2 months.

CanuckReefer · Jul 15, 2021

JediCruz said:
The tank is a 90 gallon and it’s been up for 9 1/2 months.

Hmmm....definitely odd that ONE pincushion is hitting at your coral, and that you need to supplement feed it in a 90 IMO, of that age that you likely have a decent amount of coraline by now. Do you have a huge cleanup crew? Or several Urchins?
Mine is quite a heavy CUC in my 90 and the urchins don't bother anything. In saying that I did have a pencil urchin for about 5 years that suddenly went rogue munching on my Kenya Trees (some would consider this a blessing lol) so donated it back to LFS.
Do you have a noticeable amount of coralline? At least on rocks? Mine munches through it, but it comes right back a few weeks later. Is it perhaps just irritating the edges of coral...curious what others think.

davidcalgary29 · Jul 15, 2021

Professional debridement provided gratis. I'd bet it's just cleaning up some necrotic tissue.

JediCruz · Jul 16, 2021

CanuckReefer said:
Hmmm....definitely odd that ONE pincushion is hitting at your coral, and that you need to supplement feed it in a 90 IMO, of that age that you likely have a decent amount of coraline by now. Do you have a huge cleanup crew? Or several Urchins?
Mine is quite a heavy CUC in my 90 and the urchins don't bother anything. In saying that I did have a pencil urchin for about 5 years that suddenly went rogue munching on my Kenya Trees (some would consider this a blessing lol) so donated it back to LFS.
Do you have a noticeable amount of coralline? At least on rocks? Mine munches through it, but it comes right back a few weeks later. Is it perhaps just irritating the edges of coral...curious what others think.

My cleanup crew consists of 3 Mexican Turbo Snails, 2 Trochus Snails, 4 Mexican Red-legged Hermit Crabs, and the 1 Urchin. I have coralline algae everywhere but it’s not caked on everywhere. I do feed it Nori sheets as I’ve mentioned. Right now there’s plenty of algae in the tank as well so there’s plenty of food. The coral that he some off of us doing fine, btw. Just that area was bitten off.

JediCruz · Jul 16, 2021

davidcalgary29 said:
Professional debridement provided gratis. I'd bet it's just cleaning up some necrotic tissue.

That is very possible. I’ll chalk it up to that.

CanuckReefer · Jul 16, 2021

JediCruz said:
My cleanup crew consists of 3 Mexican Turbo Snails, 2 Trochus Snails, 4 Mexican Red-legged Hermit Crabs, and the 1 Urchin. I have coralline algae everywhere but it’s not caked on everywhere. I do feed it Nori sheets as I’ve mentioned. Right now there’s plenty of algae in the tank as well so there’s plenty of food. The coral that he some off of us doing fine, btw. Just that area was bitten off.

At this point, I would not supplement feed it....almost a year , let it find its food, in my 90 never supplement mine, and the CUC is quitea bit larger....

JediCruz · Jul 17, 2021

CanuckReefer said:
At this point, I would not supplement feed it....almost a year , let it find its food, in my 90 never supplement mine, and the CUC is quitea bit larger....

Got it. Ok. I guess I just freak out because I had one die on me early on the tanks life but I think it was because it was too early to get one. I’ll do that.