EMERGENCY urchin crushed by clam!

[SaltyWalty]

Having three different species of urchins I'm looking foward to the updates

What species of urchins do you have? Love the little critters

 

[slingfox]

I hope it can recover!

 

[Solo McReefer]

I hope it can recover!

I know, right

Pins and needles

 

[sfin52]

What species of urchins do you have? Love the little critters

Rock boring
Purple pin cushion
Tuxedo

 

[sky414]

Yikes. I hope it works out. Please keep us updated!

 

[Dom]

24 hour (ish) update:
Moved him to a holding tank I have running. He’s wondered around plenty and appears to be alive but still some very visible damage. Any suggestions would be appreciated

If it is behaving normally, I would place it back in the DT and let it go about its business. Monitor. It may heal up.

 

[SaltyWalty]

If it is behaving normally, I would place it back in the DT and let it go about its business. Monitor. It may heal up.

The holding tank his is in is a coral/live rock quarantine/holding. It’s pretty much a display all parameters are monitored and there is more coralline growth since there are no other urchins, and I don’t want to move him again I’m worried it might be more stress.

 

[Dom]

The holding tank his is in is a coral/live rock quarantine/holding. It’s pretty much a display all parameters are monitored and there is more coralline growth since there are no other urchins, and I don’t want to move him again I’m worried it might be more stress.

Then let it be right where it is.

 

[Hadla]

I know, right

Pins and needles

I see what you did there :face-with-tears-of-joy:

Hope it recovers, op! Interesting info on urchins in here! They’re so fun to watch

 

[Bohemian Waxwing]

Oh - I always thought that when the shell (test) was broken, the urchin would live for a bit, but then eventually die. But then, I would always just freeze them at some point after that happened, so I never really tried to see if they would/could repair that amount of damage! Echinoderms have have an open vascular system, and sea stars obviously regenerate, so I guess I should have been more optimistic!

Jay

I’ve seen damage to urchins like this a handful of times but I sadly never saw one recover long term :( sometimes days, sometimes weeks, but they always passed.

Could be that LFS systems are just too messy for recovery.

 

[SaltyWalty]

Final update:
Unfortunately it’s appears that’s in the clam vs urchin battle the clam comes out on top.
The little guy was hanging in there this morning when I was checking on the tank, was even carrying around some shells and such.
However, when I checked on the tank this evening, this was all I found of the little guy.

Will probably do a large water change on the tank. Should I run a bag of carbon as a precaution?

 

[slingfox]

At least your tuxedo urchin got to spend its last day in a peaceful quarantine tank by itself. You tried your best which is all we can ever ask of ourselves.

 

[Hadla]

Sorry to hear that… rip poor guy