How to acclimate Tuxedo Urchin and Fighting Conch

[BigJohnny]

Hey Reefers,

I have a Red Tuxedo Urchin and 2 Tongan fighting conch showing up this morning. I've read a ton of conflicting information on proper acclimation for the Urchin specifically, I assume the conch you can treat like any other snail?

My main question is, can the urchin be exposed to air. I know starfish etc of the same family cant, but I know some urchins definitely can because I've seen them do it in the wild before.

I don't qt inverts so after temp acclimation (as long as salinity is matched) I will rinse the snail/crab in 3 cups of tank water before putting it in my tank. I will likely be drip acclimating the urchin since I've heard they can be relatively sensitive but after that I would like to remove it from the water it came in and put it in the tank, at a minimum. Obviously if it can't be exposed to air I can't do that.

Thoughts? Experience? Thanks!

 

[Kamden Uelton]

The out of water thing for starfish is a myth, Just an excuse people use when starfish die on them... as for the acclimation I would do 1 hour on the urchin and 30 minutes for the conch

 

[BigJohnny]

The out of water thing for starfish is a myth, Just an excuse people use when starfish die on them... as for the acclimation I would do 1 hour on the urchin and 30 minutes for the conch

Thanks. Urchin has a couple spines in the bottom of the bag, should I even bother putting it in the tank? Doesn't that mean they are dying?

 

[Kyl]

One of mine left a spine in the container after drip acclimation (about an hour, using the IM drip gadget). It's been eating GHA like a boss for the last week, so seems to have done fine. I did the same method for both fighting conchs, they're also doing fine.

Depending on the salinity swing, I drip to double the water volume then float the container for 10 or so minutes to get the temperatures matching again, then added them in. I also did the same thing with a linckia starfish (same container as the urchin), and it's been doing fine as well. Only exposed to air for about three seconds during the move.

These went into an invert / coral QT tank, so I didn't rinse them, but there shouldn't be an issue rising anything on your list.

 

[BigJohnny]

One of mine left a spine in the container after drip acclimation (about an hour, using the IM drip gadget). It's been eating GHA like a boss for the last week, so seems to have done fine. I did the same method for both fighting conchs, they're also doing fine.

Depending on the salinity swing, I drip to double the water volume then float the container for 10 or so minutes to get the temperatures matching again, then added them in. I also did the same thing with a linckia starfish (same container as the urchin), and it's been doing fine as well. Only exposed to air for about three seconds during the move.

These went into an invert / coral QT tank, so I didn't rinse them, but there shouldn't be an issue rising anything on your list.

I floated in the sump while simultaneously doing a 1hr drip, doubling the water twice even though salinity was the same, and rinsed the snails but not the urchin. I normally don't drip snails if salinity is the same but wasn't sure about fighting conchs.

The urchin looked way better than I thought once in the tank, I think it just broke a few off in transit. Checked on it tonight and it already has a hermit crab and some ulva riding on its back lol.

What color Linckia did you get? I was on either bluezoo or saltwaterfish.com the other day browsing inverts because LA was out of fighting conch and red tuxedos, and i was surprised to see several different colors of linckia. I thought there was only red or blue but i saw purple and orange and maybe one more, pretty cool. I also read that the some colors are actually more hardy than the others.

Good luck, I've heard they are very hit or miss (usually miss) on staying alive long term. I hope it works out for you, and thanks for the post.

 

[Kyl]

I got a blue linckia, there's tons of film on the glass in the frag qt for it, and the DT where it will eventually go.

 

[BigJohnny]

I got a blue linckia, there's tons of film on the glass in the frag qt for it, and the DT where it will eventually go.

Well that's good, but I read they eat film bacteria that we cant even see

 

[BigJohnny]

Unfortunately the tuxedo hasn't moved in 24hrs and shed all of its spines overnight. Is there a visible change when it's officially dead or should I just pull it out now? It's still bright blue etc, no other changes but no spines. I don't have high nitrates BTW so was a result of accumulated stress along the way as it was already struggling on arrival.