Urchin dying

[h4wk]

It might actually be already dead.
I have no idea what happened, it hasn't moved since yesterday and everything else looks fine. Other than whatever is on the second picture. Any ideas? Anything I can do? Please help

 

[h4wk]

200 liter tank, these are the parameters and what else is inside

 

[code4]

The second picture is just bubble algae. I have had some in the past. I would just pull the power head and clean it off. You can manually remove it as you see it. Lots of posts on it.

Never had an urchin. Sorry.

 

[Stuartmercer]

It looks like it might have died because i don't see any spines on it. sorry for your lose, mine died too. I put the skeleton into my frag tank for fish to hid from. they make good places to hide.

 

[code4]

I have read that they can lose spines and regrow them. I would just watch it for now. Not sure what you feed it. It might need something to eat.

 

[MSB123]

They dont ship well. Did you just get it?

 

[HotRocks]

Yeah that urchin likely won't recover.

Agree pic 2 is just bubble algae on powerhead.

 

[h4wk]

It will be 8 months in a few days that I have had it, but it hasn't moved for 24 hours now. It seems to be moving the spines and the tentacles that are left a bit. I will try adding some food around it but I guess if it still hasn't moved by tomorrow I have to move it out? [emoji17] It will be the first death of my first aquarium, I want to believe it is old age

 

[saintsreturn]

IMO, it didnt have enough food. Your tank is super clean (beautiful btw). If he found himself in an area without enough food long enough, he will starve himself out. I had this happen 1 in an established tank and just lost one after the move.

I am now waiting for my glass to get covered again so i can buy another one.

 

[acabgd]

Noticed your Alk is really low. They much prefer higher numbers around the 8 range. You might try placing some nori nearby.

 

[Louis Z]

Urchins can drop spines and continue to live , they can regrow . Usually drops spines if they are shocked . Big Change in salinity or other parameter . You can always pick it up and see if it’s moving it’s mouth . If you take it out of the water and smell it and stinks , throw it away because it’s rotting .

 

[DMG Reef]

Maybe the alkalinity spike stressed the urchin. Going from 11 dkh to 14 dkh in less than a week is a large swing. That's assuming that your chart is showing meq/L. LPS aren't as sensitive to alk spikes, but maybe the urchin was.

 

[h4wk]

There hasn't been a big change for months, parameters are pretty much the same as four months ago and the alkalinity raised a bit so that should be good. I will look into raising it further.
As an update, I moved it towards the glass to see its mouth. It is slightly moving. And it did get attached to the window. I'll wait until after work now to see if anything has changed

 

[h4wk]

No movement but it's still alive. I don't know what to do. I'm going on vacations in two days for two weeks. I can't have it die while I'm away but I don't want to take it out if it's not dead [emoji17]

 

[Louis Z]

Use the same water in an isolation tank ; heater air stone and a glass cover to minimize evaporation hope for the best . I wouldn’t want it dying and crashing the DT .

 

[acabgd]

Use the same water in an isolation tank ; heater air stone and a glass cover to minimize evaporation hope for the best . I wouldn’t want it dying and crashing the DT .

Two weeks is a rather long time to have this urchin in another tank, without ATO and food. Bad timing. Hope for the best.

 

[Louis Z]

Maybe put some liverock with it and hope that it finishes what it can and survive enough for the last week

 

[Auto-pilot]

Depending on how big your tank is it shouldn't cause too much of a nutrient spike. You can try and feed it seaweed but it most likely won't make it unless it starts eating again. I've had one loose a bunch of spines from shock but never all of them.

 

[h4wk]

I woke up today to find an empty shell. And something white next to it that should be the body. I took the shell out of the tank but the rest was snatched while I was taking the picture by a white little crab that I have never seen before. I hope the crab eats it and there isn't an ammonia spike because of that.
I had quite the love hate relationship with that urchin. Maybe I'll get another one when I'm back. Thank you all for your advice

 

[Auto-pilot]

Yeah there probably wasn't enough food for it. You can allways substitute seaweed inti it's diet in the future