Urchin hitchhiker?!?

MarsRover · Apr 30, 2017

Hey folks, so i've only ever had a purple sea urchin but this morning we woke up and discovered this little guy poking out of some rocks:

this looks like a short spine to me. What do you all think? It's really crammed in the rock branches so i can't quite see it's body, i just saw the spines sticking out and can only see where a few of them attach to the main body. I think it is an urchin....thoughts????

smokin'reefer · Apr 30, 2017

I had a couple that came out of my live rock. I was told that when they're in the rock it keeps they spines ground down to a shorter length. After they came out they grew pretty quick. Make sure you have coralline algae established, they go to town on it. I was also forwarned that they can move rocks and collapse aquascapes as they get bigger.

MarsRover · Apr 30, 2017

yeah, i've heard these guys like to CRAM themselves into rocks, hence the heaving of aquascapes. I have tons of green coraline everywhere so hopefully this little one will head to the glass to start munching!