Urchin hats?

[SlugSnorter]

Urchin hats? I know the 3d printed ones, but what are other cool urchin hats you've seen or experienced? Im talking corals, big shells, a hermit or two, etc

 

[blaxsun]

Urchin hats? I know the 3d printed ones, but what are other cool urchin hats you've seen or experienced? Im talking corals, big shells, a hermit or two, etc

Well, the other day one of my tuxedo urchins pulled a strawberry favia frag on a disc from the rocks and wore it around like a sombrero for the better part of the day...

 

[Saltywaterbox]

Mine fancied some Spitfire zoas the other day... pulled them straight off the colony.

 

[Glenner’sreef]

I’ve always wanted an Urchin!!! Soon.

 

[Sdbuehler1]

Tuxedo urchin sporting a snail operculum for a cap lol

 

[Chortanator]

He ripped my scrambled eggs colony off the rock yesterday, and then picked it up again this morning. I moved him to the other side of the tank but he's obsessed with them. He also has a piece of kelp that he was wearing at the LFS and picked back up every time it fell off, though it's slowly getting nibbled away. He's got a rock stuck on there too

 

[PSU_Reefer]

You could say my urchin wears many hats!

Worst is when he pulls up glued down frags. Sometimes when he grabs frags from the frag rack or sand bed i let him go for a little. Always feel bad for the snails that he carries around

 

[A Young Reefer]

it has been wearing it for a week now.

 

[Chortanator]

Noticing a common theme with tuxedos... maybe I should have stuck with my pencil urchin and that's it

 

[Jubei2006]

Dont have pictures but I have an urchin thats been running around with Fairytale zoas on it for about a month. Glued it back down and the urchin picked the up again. They also grab cerith snails from time to time.

 

[OPL]

My Urchin seems pretty happy with a top hat and leaves my crabs/frags alone

 

[MsBean]

Here's my guy sporting two substantial snail/hermit shells and the molt of a pom pom crab. Quite the fashion statement.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Urchin Hats.

 

[Tired]

I had one of these, years ago. They pick up random coral frags less if they're given other things to carry instead. Lil guys are just trying to camouflage themselves and get some shelter from the sun.

 

[DannoOMG]

I dont know anything about the science behind urchins. Do they consciously pick things up for camouflage or are scientists giving them too much credit for being sea velcro?

 

[Tired]

Picking up items is absolutely a deliberate effort. They aren't just mindlessly sticky- they select items, rotate the item to fit against them well, and will swap out items if they find something better.

That said, they don't have brains. This is all instinct-driven. But it is actual instinct, not just velcro-ness. If they stuck to everything, they wouldn't be able to move.

 

[Derrick0580]

I have 3 urchins. My long spine doesn’t really roam the tank and pick stuff up. My tuxedo instead of eating hair algae has covered itself in it, and my pincushion has a viking hat which he wears upside down yet also still manages to also carry around frag discs and empty shells it finds.

 

[Irregardless]

Bump this neat thread.

 

[Sailaway]

it has been wearing it for a week now.

This is amazing. just out of curiosity, how mature should a tank be before adding an urchin. Hoping to get one in the future

 

[A Young Reefer]

This is amazing. just out of curiosity, how mature should a tank be before adding an urchin. Hoping to get one in the future

I added mine at the 10 month mark to address a red turf algae issue. There was a lot of algae for it to eat.