Pros and cons of urchins

[lorkhan]

I have a purple pin cushion urchin and me and my wife loves it! Always moving around eating algae and cleaning the tank. The only con i see is that you really need to glue down your rock work or else they can collapse it. As for frags one day i saw my urchin carrying a zoa frag in his head for a day.

 

[twistedfinn967]

As far as getting stung or having the spine break off in your skin, have a tube of "drawing salve" (Ichthammol Ointment) in the medicine cabinet. This stuff is incredible. My grandma used this on me any time I got splinters as a kid. Beats digging them out from under your skin with a needle!

 

[Kungpaoshizi]

urchins are awesome, but stab too much stuff... If they're in a non-coral tank that would be alright

 

[Matt Miller]

Mine seems to be a cleaning machine, hasn't knocked anything over except a toadstool it cleaned. Tanks clearing up nicely and I think it's spawning today, so must be good I guess.

 

[jd371]

I have a purple pin cushion urchin and me and my wife loves it! Always moving around eating algae and cleaning the tank. The only con i see is that you really need to glue down your rock work or else they can collapse it. As for frags one day i saw my urchin carrying a zoa frag in his head for a day.

I know this is an old post and came across it when I was researching Urchins. I can't wrap my head around this, I know they're bulldozers and can wreak havoc with frags but how can they move or budge rocks in a rockscape, are they that strong? .... the weightlifters of the marine world.

 

[ThunderGoose]

I know this is an old post and came across it when I was researching Urchins. I can't wrap my head around this, I know they're bulldozers and can wreak havoc with frags but how can they move or budge rocks in a rockscape, are they that strong? .... the weightlifters of the marine world.

Get a tuxedo urchin - they're small and don't do a lot of damage IME.

I don't have all my rockwork glued down and neither my tuxedo urchin nor my larger short spine have knocked rocks over. They do move stuff around the sand bed and pick up anything that they can (frags, snails, hermit crabs, small rocks (rubble)...

 

[cracker]

I really like the tuxedo's They do a great job & hasn't knocked anything down"yet". I had a black long spine what a beautiful animal. However the needle sharp spines would hurt YA !

 

[BootyPup]

I know this is an old post and came across it when I was researching Urchins. I can't wrap my head around this, I know they're bulldozers and can wreak havoc with frags but how can they move or budge rocks in a rockscape, are they that strong? .... the weightlifters of the marine world.

Get a tuxedo urchin - they're small and don't do a lot of damage IME.

I don't have all my rockwork glued down and neither my tuxedo urchin nor my larger short spine have knocked rocks over. They do move stuff around the sand bed and pick up anything that they can (frags, snails, hermit crabs, small rocks (rubble)...

+1 to the Tuxedo urchin, they're great algae munchers and don't do munch in the way of damage to frags or rocks, mine only likes to steal all the shells I added from the beach.

 

[Da Ghost]

Nice thread- I just added a few Pin-cushion Urchins to my 150. I have heard the stories of frags being moved and such but willing to accept the risk since i use a frag rack with tie downs underneath- hopefully they are not that strong. So far I am told they are making a nice dent in the hair algae ( I am out of town and wife has tank duty). So far wife thinks they are super cool and not a pita yet.

 

[tastyfish]

Urchins (Specifically Blue Tuxedo urchins) are awesome algae grazers and also help keep the coraline down to maintain some porosity in the rock. The only con for me is that they test my frag sticking ability!

 

[shred5]

There great till they start eating the glue in the corners of your tank...

 

[joqubr]

with out reading the entire thread, i moved my urchin to the sump, it's getting fat and helps keep the sump clean, not sure about the social anxiety caused by being alone (lol) so i added a chocolate chip star to the sump (and the cost goes up...)

reason for the sump move was the bull dozier effect...

 

[Just_Pete]

Just got one from algae barn to help combate my GHA. Only a day in so far but he is going to town on the algae! Time will tell what the cons are.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Beautiful part of the natural occupancy of marine specimens.
Downfall is that that snag and drag many corals, macroalgaes and décor in the tank

 

[Reefcowboy]

Not related, but once in Brazil I dared to race a buddy of mine to the water at the beach during a summer trip to the northeast. The beach we were in was more like rocks instead of sand, kind of a beach nobody swam at(wonder why, lol).

As we reached the water, my first three steps in were on hundreds of sea urchins...needless to say I got broken spines all over my feet.
I got a high fever and was sick for a few so I think they must release something when the spines break off.

As a reef tank inhabitant, I appreciate them but as they grow large can irritate lps and knock off any loose coral that is not glued.

 

[Nemochris]

I have an orange eye long spine sea urchin. yes they are great for algea and even love eating coraline algea. the only down side I have found with mine is they do move corals around and the also love to eat zoanthoids well i am convinced they do anyway one day I saw mine holding a frag plug with about 8 zoas on it a couple of hours later I found the plug with no zoas left on it. And over time all of my zoathoids have disappeared except for the really common brown ones Must be more toxic for him to eat maybe. Also be very careful when working in your tank they sting like a ******* when they get you. Some people say they dont sting well I've been stung before, Its worse than any bee sting I've had. At first it looked like the spin has broken off in your skin but I'm am positive they inject you with some type of venom which looks like a black to Purple colour under the skin but after an hour the colour under the skin disappears with no spin under the skin at all.

 

[Nemochris]

I have an orange eye long spine sea urchin. yes they are great for algea and even love eating coraline algea. the only down side I have found with mine is they do move corals around and the also love to eat zoanthoids well i am convinced they do anyway one day I saw mine holding a frag plug with about 8 zoas on it a couple of hours later I found the plug with no zoas left on it. And over time all of my zoathoids have disappeared except for the really common brown ones Must be more toxic for him to eat maybe. Also be very careful when working in your tank they sting like a ******* when they get you. Some people say they dont sting well I've been stung before, Its worse than any bee sting I've had. At first it looked like the spin has broken off in your skin but I'm am positive they inject you with some type of venom which looks like a black to Purple colour under the skin but after an hour the colour under the skin disappears with no spin under the skin at all.

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

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.

I don’t have a urchin but I just lost a Ora birds nest frag and I can’t find it anywhere, kindia hoping if I don’t find it I’ll find it growing somewhere about 6 months ago under a rock or something

 

[Shaun Sweeney]

I've got long spines in both 140 gallon tanks. Amazing to watch and how they get in and out of places is hard to figure. Haven't had any problems with them knocking stuff over (that I know of) and they are long lived.

 

[Forsaken77]

How do they pick things up and drag them? It's not like they have arms, lol.

Are the short-spined ones able to make things stick to them? So they act like fly paper or something? I can see the long-spined guys just bumping their spines or accidentally lifting something up with them. But I'm curious how they are able to drag things or place them on top of themselves.

 

[cmcoker]

All those threads waving around are their feet. They act like little suction cups basically. They are how they move and how they move things. They can get some decent sized stuff attached if they get enough feet attached

It's also why you want to be gentle when moving them, if you damage too many it can effect their ability to move