Tri-Color Nudibranch reef safe?

[Picassoclown]

Any of those very brightly-colored nudibranchs will only eat one very specific thing. They're reef-safe, yes, but reefs are not them-safe. They're doomed to starve as soon as a collector gets ahold of them.

Sea hares and lettuce nudibranchs eat algae, but aren't colorful, and have fairly specific requirements. If you want color and algae removal, and you don't have an acrylic tank, try a tuxedo, collector, or Halloween urchin.

As I was posting this, I was thinking about an urchin. I heard they can be bulldozers. I have a wide variety of corals from softies to LPS & inverts; would an urchin be okay in my system? I do not want them to sting anything or kill any of my crabs /corals.

 

[kevgib67]

I have a tuxedo urchin that is fantastic at algae control. The don’t sting. Occasionally the pickup things to carry around to camouflage themselves. Make sure plugs are glued down.

 

[StatelineReefer]

That poor zoa in the third picture...

'Where am I? What's going on, slow down you maniac!'

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

They will just starve to death. So why even consider them?

Animals in this classification have specific diets really only found in their reef ranges and are not suitable for the ornamental hobby. Some things need to b left alone.

 

[TheReefDiary]

As I was posting this, I was thinking about an urchin. I heard they can be bulldozers. I have a wide variety of corals from softies to LPS & inverts; would an urchin be okay in my system? I do not want them to sting anything or kill any of my crabs /corals.

I have a small purple urchin and he's a great cleaner for the tank and didn't destroy anything at least at the current size. interesting to watch as well. especially when they pick up snails and other objects in the tank.

 

[Tired]

Tuxedo urchins can't bulldoze very much, due to only being a couple inches across and having short, dull spines. The only potential issue is the carrying things, which is easy to deal with; just make sure you don't have any super-loose tiny frags. As a bonus, you can put little hats on them!

 

[Picassoclown]

I'm thinking of getting the halloween urchin, the colors on those are incredible! Very beautiful! Anyone have any luck with those?

 

[Tired]

From what I know of them, they're a larger tuxedo-type urchin. They're able to push small, loose rocks over, but they are pretty enough to potentially be worth the trouble. Though I'm not sure how large of a tank they need to stay fed; probably best to look that one up.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Either urchin are fine for algae control. I used them for the ugly stages and then passed them along because I enjoy my system sans the random urchin redesign.