Pros and cons of urchins

[Matt Miller]

So I was planning on ditching the urchin along with the blue cycling fish, but my wife and sister have fallen in love with it. My lfs said get rid of it so I don't get stung doing water changes, but are they worth having if I can keep away from it??

 

[ThunderGoose]

No experience keeping urchins but I'm a weirdo and plan to add one to my tank. I like me some invertebrates.

 

[Tahoe61]

Cons:

You have to take more care when working in the tank so as to avoid the spines. They do not sting but rather the spines break off and can become embedded in tissue.
Urchins will bulldoze corals and have the ability to move unstable rock work.

Pros:

Excellent algae eaters and fascinating animals.

 

[Tyreef2016]

Sorry I don't have any info. But I have been curious the pros and cons of keeping an urchin in a reef tank also. I would like one similar or a pin cushion Urchin. Following to see what fellow reefers experiences are.

 

[Tyreef2016]

Cons:

You have to take more care when working in the tank so as to avoid the spines. They do not sting but rather the spines break off and can become embedded in tissue.
Urchins will bulldoze corals and have the ability to move unstable rock work.

Pros:

Excellent algae eaters and fascinating animals.

So not a great idea if corals are involved?
Thanks

 

[Tahoe61]

If corals are glued down they are at less risk of being tumbled by an Urchin. The rock structure should be stable.

My pin cushion urchin was capable of removing and carrying around certain acropora frags, it was always the same frags and it did not matter that I glued them down or used epoxy. My pin cushion also removed my waver maker from the mounting, which was not good, but was caught early before the wave maker was able to spew water out of the tank.

I have only kept long spin urchins in really large FOWLR tanks so they were not as troublesome.

 

[Mike_J]

Sea urchins are incredibly fascinating to me and amazing algae grazers! I've never had the courage to house a long spine urchin, but have kept pincushions, tuxedos and currently have a short spine urchin which I never see since it's nocturnal. When I had the others, I could sit and watch them for hours. So neat.

 

[Matt Miller]

I don't plan on having much for corals, just a few fish and some of what's still alive with the rocks and some anemones.

The system I bought is overgrown with algae, I scrubbed what I could off but still needs work so I'm leaning towards trying to keep the urchin. I spotted at least 2 mini brittle stars in the 10g holding tank along with hermits and snails.

 

[csb123]

I really enjoy my urchins. They are cool and great algae grazers. Non fish people seem to like them as much as any coral.

 

[aabjones888]

I love watching urchins in tanks. They will knock stuff over and move stuff if there not secured real well. They to get a smaller one if possible to be less destructive. I've had shortspine, long spines and pincushions and there all neat to watch. They do eat algae too which is a positive. They will clean the rocks so well that u will see spots of your coralline algae start to disappear if your rocks arnt covered in coral.

 

[Tahoe61]

Cons:

You have to take more care when working in the tank so as to avoid the spines. They do not sting but rather the spines break off and can become embedded in tissue.
Urchins will bulldoze corals and have the ability to move unstable rock work.

Pros:

Excellent algae eaters and fascinating animals.

Actually I am in error regarding an urchins ability to sting. The Fire Urchin packs a real punch, so much so that I would never keep another.

Not my image.

 

[Matt Miller]

That doesn't quite look like the one I have...I was told worse than a new sting

 

[Tahoe61]

I have been stuck by a long spine diving and work in a tank, not a big deal. Yes it appears that Black Long Spine Urchins do sting. Guess I have been stung by worse. See link below.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+530+591&pcatid=591

 

[Y2KReef]

Loved my urchin!! Did a great job eating algae and covered a lot of distance per day. The only problem is the pick things up and carry them. I've lost a number of frags because I just could not find them.

 

[Matt Miller]

Well that doesn't sound bad, I always enjoyed paintball I think it can stay a while lol

 

[BrettMallette]

Had mine for over 4 years now. Royal urchin i think is the name of mine. Eats tons of coralline algae and hair algae rarely bulldozes but sometimes picks up things as a "hat" doesnt seem to like heavy things though. And they stay relatively small.

 

[Supurderek]

S

 

[Supurderek]

P a

 

[BlueCursor]

I have never had the long spine urchins. I have a Tuxedo, a Halloween, and a Rock urchin. My tank is spotless with regards to algae. My fuge is a complete mess with algae. I will never have a reef tank w/o an urchin for clean up crew. They are far superior to any other critter for algae cleanup. And yes, I have lots of coralline in my tank.

The Tuxedo is so so as far as cleanup. But he's pretty. The Halloween is worth about 5 Tuxedos, for cleanup. The Rock urchin is nice because he gets into crevices the other urchins can't get into because they are too big.

Unlike the long spine urchins, the ones I have are not an issue with getting stuck. And they are completely reef safe. They only consideration is your corals have to be glued down well. If they are not they could end up on the back of the urchin, being carried around. I never have an issue with that, because I know to glue things down well.

 

[Robert Scott]

I've had a long spine urchin for 1 1/2 yrs. Larger tank full of SPS, LPS, Clam...and I been amazed at how nibble he is not bothering anything. Every once in a while I see a coral out of place, maybe from him. If he's in the way of a maintenance task I just give him a light tap and he moves out of the way.