What's this dude

[BryanM]

He was on the bottom of a rock in my sump that I was going to place back in the tank

 

[crazyfishmom]

Looks like some sort of urchin.

 

[timmyrules]

Looks like an urchin

 

[BryanM]

are all urchins good?

 

[vetteguy53081]

He was on the bottom of a rock in my sump that I was going to place back in the tank

pencil urchin

 

[PharmrJohn]

Looks like a Borg Implant......

 

[sketh]

are all urchins good?

They eat a LOT of algae and very quickly. They are also known to pick up coral fragments and move them around/munch on them if there’s not enough food in the tank.

 

[BryanM]

LiveAquaria says it is not reef safe.... Considering it was on a piece of live rock in my sump, and its been there for 4+ weeks, I'm surprised it appears alive.

 

[timmyrules]

LiveAquaria says it is not reef safe.... Considering it was on a piece of live rock in my sump, and it’s been there for 4+ weeks, I'm surprised it appears alive.

I’ve herded they do occasionally munch on corals….but I’ve kept them in my DT with a lot of corals and none got eaten. As long as there’s algae for them, they shouldn’t eat corals.

 

[timmyrules]

Heard*

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

are all urchins good?

Lots of different urchin species, most are fine, but a few are carnivorous and may eat things like corals and other inverts. The most common pencil urchin in the hobby, for example - Eucidaris tribuloides - is spongivorous in the wild, but in captivity it will eat pretty much anything it can get a hold of.

Your urchin seems to be rock-boring urchin of some variety rather than a pencil urchin, though, so I doubt you'd have issues with it.



A quick urchin ID tip for anyone interested:

-Needle/cactus-like spines (small/not very thick) = some kind of pincushion urchin

-Moderately thick but still pointy spines = some kind of rock-boring urchin

-Very thick and not very pointy at all spines = some kind of pencil urchin.

 

[BryanM]

Lots of different urchin species, most are fine, but a few are carnivorous and may eat things like corals and other inverts. The most common pencil urchin in the hobby, for example - Eucidaris tribuloides - is spongivorous in the wild, but in captivity it will eat pretty much anything it can get a hold of.

Your urchin seems to be rock-boring urchin of some variety rather than a pencil urchin, though, so I doubt you'd have issues with it.



A quick urchin ID tip for anyone interested:

-Needle/cactus-like spines (small/not very thick) = some kind of pincushion urchin

-Moderately thick but still pointy spines = some kind of rock-boring urchin

-Very thick and not very pointy at all spines = some kind of pencil urchin.

Thank you!

 

[Dom]

LiveAquaria says it is not reef safe.... Considering it was on a piece of live rock in my sump, and its been there for 4+ weeks, I'm surprised it appears alive.

The sump is a great place to keep critters like this! When I come across something like this, into the refugium it goes!

 

[BryanM]

The sump is a great place to keep critters like this! When I come across something like this, into the refugium it goes!

Well, my sump has nothing alive in it really, no light, nada. So its quite the lonely place.