Urchin Spawn

[DLHDesign]

After spending a few hours cleaning as much of the tank as I could - including pruning the xenia - I commenced to change out 25gal (of ~120gal).

What do I find as soon as I'm all cleaned up?

Urchin spawning.

At least the snail it's been carrying around for a few days had a chance to escape.

 

[glb]

Very cool.

 

[Paul B]

I know the feeling. I used to have an urchin collecting business where I would SCUBA for them in New York. I had about fifty of them and could only hold 30 so I put 20 in my reef. They all spawned in about an hour. My tank looked like Half and half. I thought everything would die. I got out my diatom filter and cleared it up with no losses. But I took out the urchins.

They spawn if you bother them, change the water or temperature or if they see a good looking urchin.

 

[DLHDesign]

They spawn if you bother them, change the water or temperature or if they see a good looking urchin.

No other urchin in the tank, so it was likely the temp change during the water change. I did look crosswise at it during the WC, however... Hmm...

 

[Naoxyn]

Wow! Induced spawning is as easy as a temp change? Is it that way with all urchins?

 

[DLHDesign]

Wow! Induced spawning is as easy as a temp change? Is it that way with all urchins?

I don't know if "easy" is the right term - the temp drop also likely killed off a few of my corals. :-(

A fair number of aquatic life spawns along with temperature changes. I'm not sure whether it's because of the temp change, or because of all that is going on during those times of change (bacterial blooms, currant shifts, etc.). Blue Planet II touched on a few of these events...

 

[fishybizzness]

My longspine urchin did the same thing after my last Water change. I kinda freaked out at first but my wife told me what was happening and I really thought it was a cool thing to see!