Do urchine reproduce in reef tanks?

[Robb1821i]

I have 2 urchins in my tank. Today I noticed a baby urchin. Do they reproduce in aquariums?

 

[anemoneanatomy]

It's not impossible, but it's fairly unlikely. Sea urchin babies are free floating for a really long time (I believe around two years), so to be a baby of your urchins, they would have had to have mated quite some time ago, produced viable spawn, and then the free-floating larva would have to survive in your tank (and your filter / sump / protein skimmer / etc) until it was big enough to be visible to you.

 

[Robb1821i]

Ok cool. So it must've been hiding in my live rock

 

[Thereefdoc]

I have 2 urchins in my tank. Today I noticed a baby urchin. Do they reproduce in aquariums?

.

One of my friends is actually working on breeding blue tuxedo urchins in his tank! Very cool stuff but very involved. It doesn’t just happen spontaneously

 

[Nick Steele]

Yeah it’s not a baby that your urchins produced sorry. Free floating urchins in live algae to survive. But larval urchins can settle out in as little as two weeks time if conditions are correct.

 

[Steg]

It's not impossible, but it's fairly unlikely. Sea urchin babies are free floating for a really long time (I believe around two years), so to be a baby of your urchins, they would have had to have mated quite some time ago, produced viable spawn, and then the free-floating larva would have to survive in your tank (and your filter / sump / protein skimmer / etc) until it was big enough to be visible to you.

Blue Tuxedo urchin breeding success!

It's been a while since our last batch of urchins, and I've been trying several times this past year to do it again. Turns out there are a lot of factors involved in urchin aquaculture. Broodstock health is crucial, including diet and conditioning. There are still several factors that I have not...

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