I like to live....dangerously

FishLipz · Nov 14, 2016

I love inverts and I found myself staring at an urchin at my LFS that I know is questionable in a reef. It's one of those animals that if you see it in person it's just absolutely amazing. So, you know the rest of the story...

So who out there has done the taboo and put something in your reef you know was a risk? Added that coral that's a plague? Maybe that fish that you told yourself will be the exception to the rule? What was your Austin Powers moment and how did it turn out?

Cheers to all of us who have taken the risk and emerged victorious or tasted bitter defeat!

Reefiness · Nov 16, 2016

ive had several of these moments... the dumbest being saving a little neck clam destined for my belly just to see if it lived (who knows what that could have brought in) end result, saw it for a few moments before it burrowed into the sand. several years later emptying out the tank as i had upgraded and i found many clam shells in the sand i was scooping out. I guess i did it several times.. Just a few weeks ago i decided to try putting freshwater mollies in my frag tank, way easier than i expected it to be, and theyre doing great so far.

BTW: that urchin looks awesome!

melypr1985 · Nov 16, 2016

That is one super awesome urchin! I put a snowflake eel in my reef full of small fish. lol So far all that's happened is he injured my blue star leopard wrasse (early on and she fully healed) and if he gets hungry enough he starts stalking the black cap basslet. He's definitely not going into the upgrade

RJ Harris · Nov 17, 2016

That urchin is crazy!!

I currently have a dwarf lion in my 125 it was in a fowler tank with other not so nice fish but I combined tanks and when I bought the 125 and got rid of other fish accept a maroon clown which is in there too with a Darwin clown which everyone will say that's a big no no cuz maroons are vicious. But my Darwin is just as mean but a 1/3 the size as the maroon. Every time I put my hand in the tank the Darwin stalks me down and bites me every time and chases my hand everywhere.

But back to the lion. He's about 4.5 inches now i got him when he was about an inch and starving because he'd only eat live and the store wasn't feeding the tanks anything but frozen mysis. So I picked him up and brought him home. He's now in my 125 mixed reef and sometimes gets bullied by my yellow clown goby if he gets too close to his Duncan's

. He could care less about any of the other fish in the tank

Daniel@R2R · Nov 17, 2016

Great thread!

leahfiish · Nov 18, 2016

What kind of Urchin is that?

FishLipz · Nov 18, 2016

leahfiish said:
What kind of Urchin is that?

It's a blue spot long spine urchin (Astropyga radiata). It's also called the red, or false fire urchin too

leahfiish · Nov 19, 2016

FishLipz said:
It's a blue spot long spine urchin (Astropyga radiata). It's also called the red, or false fire urchin too

I can't really find any consistent info on them. What makes them so questionable in a reef?

WhiskeyCoffee · Nov 19, 2016

While you're at it, why not add some pulsing xenia?

Vaughn17 · Nov 19, 2016

I believe it's venomous.

FishLipz · Nov 19, 2016

It is venomous, but no more than your typical long spine urchin. The other issue is they have been known to damage corals.

leahfiish · Nov 19, 2016

FishLipz said:
It is venomous, but no more than your typical long spine urchin. The other issue is they have been known to damage corals.

Interesting. With proper precautions the venomous aspect should be irrelevant. But it seems that if they are well fed they shouldn't bother corals.

Wilsoni · Nov 19, 2016

It looks like a spiky cyano covered ball of death... Lol but it's awesome to say the least.

Mattsaddiction · Nov 19, 2016

can you handle it with your hands? how did you put it in your tank? curious because i want one lol

FishLipz · Nov 19, 2016

Mattsaddiction said:
can you handle it with your hands? how did you put it in your tank? curious because i want one lol

I used a pair of rubber gloves to remove it from the bucket after I acclimated it. I've been lucky enough to not be stung by anything in my tank as of yet and I wasn't willing to try my luck. Lol.

FishLipz · Nov 19, 2016

leahfiish said:
Interesting. With proper precautions the venomous aspect should be irrelevant. But it seems that if they are well fed they shouldn't bother corals.

Well, it's been a week and no damage as far as I can tell. I do remember a thread on another site that the owner wasn't so lucky. The big difference if I remember correctly was the age of the tank. My tank has been running for years and the other was relatively new. So maybe there is more algae and detritus for it to eat in my tank.

FishLipz · Nov 19, 2016

RJ Harris said:
That urchin is crazy!!

I currently have a dwarf lion in my 125 it was in a fowler tank with other not so nice fish but I combined tanks and when I bought the 125 and got rid of other fish accept a maroon clown which is in there too with a Darwin clown which everyone will say that's a big no no cuz maroons are vicious. But my Darwin is just as mean but a 1/3 the size as the maroon. Every time I put my hand in the tank the Darwin stalks me down and bites me every time and chases my hand everywhere.

But back to the lion. He's about 4.5 inches now i got him when he was about an inch and starving because he'd only eat live and the store wasn't feeding the tanks anything but frozen mysis. So I picked him up and brought him home. He's now in my 125 mixed reef and sometimes gets bullied by my yellow clown goby if he gets too close to his Duncan's

. He could care less about any of the other fish in the tank

I was considering a dwarf fuzzy lion but I can't get past the idea of him eating my clowns that I've had for years.

Bdog4u2 · Nov 19, 2016

I cal

FishLipz said:
I love inverts and I found myself staring at an urchin at my LFS that I know is questionable in a reef. It's one of those animals that if you see it in person it's just absolutely amazing. So, you know the rest of the story...

So who out there has done the taboo and put something in your reef you know was a risk? Added that coral that's a plague? Maybe that fish that you told yourself will be the exception to the rule? What was your Austin Powers moment and how did it turn out?

Cheers to all of us who have taken the risk and emerged victorious or tasted bitter defeat!

I call it Sunday. I've never been intimidated bout anything in this hobby but I do always have a back up plan

RJ Harris · Nov 20, 2016

FishLipz said:
I was considering a dwarf fuzzy lion but I can't get past the idea of him eating my clowns that I've had for years.

My cousins fuzzy tries to eat anything he puts in the tank. He put a full size mandarin in there which was the same size as the fuzzy at the time and he stalked it for like a week