Poll: Sea urchins as pets

[Coridella Starbough]

Last year I did a Work Education course. Part of this course involved doing a bit of work experience. One of the places where I did work experience was a pet store that sells fish and reptiles. During the week that I spent there, one of the jobs I was given was putting a bucket load of Sea urchins in a tank. I didn't even know that people were allowed to keep Sea urchins. How popular are they with aquarium owners?

 

[Capitol Reef Corals]

I have two. A Pencil Sea Urchin and a Blue Tuxedo Urchin. I'd say they are popular with people who have 50+ gallons. Probably most have tried a species of urchin at some point as they are a super cool animal to observe.

 

[bean2986]

Maybe the Mods can turn this into a poll for you? You've got a pretty awesome sample size on here. I have one in my tank.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I have one now, I have had up to four at a time in the past. They are very good at eating undesirable algae. Most people wouldn’t consider them the primary resident of the tank but they are part of the mini ecosystem.

 

[cracker]

I have a couple of tuxedo urchins. I had a long spine in a 220. I gave that one plenty of room ! They are curious animals & are algae lawnmowers .

 

[Mark Gray]

I have a captive bread pincushion in my current tank

 

[tdileo]

I would say they are moderately popular. I have a pincushion in my 90 and thinking about adding a halloween urchin as well, I just would be a bit nervous about them running out of algae. Great cleaners and funny to watch them pick stuff up.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Years ago when I started my tank, I used Florida wild rock, and among the many cool things attached to it was quite a few small rock boring urchins. I liked them a lot and they survived for a number of years.

Bigger urchins can become a pain as they knock things over, and they can devastate the coralline in a reef tank by eating it.

 

[ntayler]

I have a blue tuxedo that’s been in the tank for a while. Doesn’t devastate the coralline and only picks up small ceriths which I don’t mind. Had a Halloween/white spine urchin for a little while as well, but it was an absolute bulldozer and also consumed too much coralline, so I returned him. I would only recommend the smaller guys like tuxedos based on my experience. Really couldn’t tolerate the glued down frags getting ripped up and carried around by the white spine

 

[saltyhog]

Like Randy I started my tank with Gulf maricultured live rock. I had 7 rock boring urchins that were about the size of a quarter. They grew incredibly fast and I traded them in to my LFS after a few years.

Now I just have a pincushion urchin.

 

[AntarcticIkeelu]

I’ve had a total of 3 urchins in my tank. One was a long spine that ultimately outgrew the tank (150 gallons). Once I got rid of him I decided to try another long spine but after he developed a taste for my zoas he went back to the fish store. (To my knowledge this is pretty rare). Finally I got a fire urchin because of their color. He ended up getting traded in to because I’m messing around in my tank too much and, if I were to get stung by him I’d be down for the count for awhile.

 

[fishybizzness]

I have two that came in on my live rock. I love target feeding them nori! They do love my coraline algea but I've grown very much attached to them so I'm going to keep them for awhile!

 

[CNDReef]

I’ve got a long spine urchin but going to try to trade him in for a pincushion, he’s outgrown my tank in a few months

 

[fish farmer]

I've used urchins for algae conrol in a 120 FOWLR, they work well for me and usually live for a couple of years. I had one small one in my 29 gallon reef that lasted about as long, they can knock things over.

 

[Neo Jeo]

Mine knocked corals over all the time. It kept me unease. I chose no in my 120g.

 

[Saltdaddy]

They are awesome. I have 4 in a 250 gal . One of the best for algae .

 

[DracoKat]

I have two in my 75g. A rock borin' that's about 3 years old now, and a pink tuxedo that likes to carry around rubble and snails. They're great conversation pieces, as most people are surprised I have them in my tank, thinking the same as you.

 

[Frizzles7]

I had one that came on my TBS live rock. A few weeks later I noticed I had baby urchins everywhere. I gave 13 to my LFS. They are awesome to observe and so cute as babies!

Here’s the one I kept:

Here are some of the babies:

 

[John3]

I had a couple hitchhiker urchins that started out the size of an eraser. They were pretty cool and territorial. They got to stay until one day they decided to mow down my rainbow acan and then another acan. I don’t think they targeted the acans, they were just in their eating path.

 

[John3]

This guy was pretty cool at my lfs.