Baby urchin hitchhiker

mje113

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Wow, some days I love that I went with live rock over fry rock, some days I regret it. I'm hoping that today is the former.

My tank is ~3 month old and surprise surprise I saw this tiny urchin today. It's roughly the size of a quarter including the spines.

I love the idea of having an urchin, and to me it looks similar to ones I see sold in LFS, but any chance it could be harmful to corals? I'm guessing if I keep it it'll eventually become a nice Uni snack for my hitchhiking mantis shrimp I caveat been able to trap.

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Zach B

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They are considered reef safe as well if it is indeed a pencil
 

Reefing102

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Agree with Pencil Urchin. Also agree definite bill dozer. Some say they have issues when they get older. To my knowledge I haven’t had any issues with mine
 

Rmckoy

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Very cool find .
The best I’ve found as hitchhikers were bubble tip anemone inside a rock
Mantis shrimp that I sold to the lfs
Acro crab that much have come with a acro colony

needles to say I haven’t bought rocks or coral colonies in a very long time . I feel like I’m missing out in all the treasures
 

Alexoss

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I have a big one (say around 2 inches wide plus spikes) and i had to put it in my sump, was munching at soft corals sometimes, wasn t sure at first until i saw it live.
I think most of the inverts who are considered "reef safe" might become annoying when full grown.
I have a BIG money cowrie snail (4 inches long shell) and he ate a litlle of the seams of my tank...
 
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