Is this urchin reef safe?

[Imrahilwjz]

I suspect it of eating some pulsing xenia in my DT but my photographic evidence is a little uncertain. Is this a not reef safe species? Thanks

 

[TX_REEF]

if you can confirm it really eats pulsing xenia, I bet people would buy it just for that reason!!

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

if you can confirm it really eats pulsing xenia, I bet people would buy it just for that reason!!

U read my mind. Lol

 

[exnisstech]

Looks like a pencil urchin. I have not kept one but info online has them and being reef safe.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

i have one that ive had for a long time in my tank. never had it bother corals

 

[Imrahilwjz]

I've thought of a way to test it. My fear is that it might eat other corals if it ate them. I saw a post by @ISpeakForTheSeas about certain species not being reef safe. Then saw the rock cleared off. I've been second guessing myself about it. I guess I could put it in an acclimation box with some xenia and see if they get eaten.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I've thought of a way to test it. My fear is that it might eat other corals if it ate them. I saw a post by @ISpeakForTheSeas about certain species not being reef safe. Then saw the rock cleared off. I've been second guessing myself about it. I guess I could put it in an acclimation box with some xenia and see if they get eaten.

Looks like E. thouarsii; I'd call it not reef-safe to reef-safe-with-caution - the most common pencil urchin species in the hobby (to my knowledge) is E. tribuloides, which I personally label just not reef-safe:

Yours is Eucidaris thouarsii (you can tell by the color at the base of the spines) - also not entirely reef-safe (it is known to eat corals and other immobile/slow-moving inverts sometimes, and it's recognized as being detrimental to coral growth around the edge of reefs), but much less likely to start eating corals, as this one is herbivorous/omnivorous rather than spongivorous in the wild (so it does have at least some preference for algae, and it tends to be a generalist feeder, so it'll eat a wide variety of algae too).
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4734443/

 

[Imrahilwjz]

Looks like E. thouarsii; I'd call it not reef-safe to reef-safe-with-caution - the most common pencil urchin species in the hobby (to my knowledge) is E. tribuloides, which I personally label just not reef-safe:

Thanks! For some reason I missed your response on the other thread. Sorry for making you answer twice

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Thanks! For some reason I missed your response on the other thread. Sorry for making you answer twice

Haha, that's fine - I didn't realize it was you asking in both.