Pencil urchin damage?

[Turkey head]

Woke up today to find the stony part of a coral had been nibbled. The only things that I know of in the tank that could do this is an urchin. Most likely a pencil. I also have a pincushion and a Halloween. I’m going to keep an eye on the corals and if it continues I’ll have to put the urchin in a different tank…

 

[fishguy242]

Yep ,most likely pencil, might want to gel super glue that hole closed... ;) :)

 

[Turkey head]

Thanks. I was wondering if I should do something with the hole

 

[Turkey head]

Hopefully it stops. I love the pencil urchin but I knew when I got it that this may happen. It’s behaved for a long time so we’ll see.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Out of curiosity, what species of pencil urchin do you have, and what do you feed it?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks. I was wondering if I should do something with the hole

I have 2 pencils and its been over 2 years and never had this. . . hmmm

 

[Turkey head]

It’s a Eucidaris of some type. It doesn’t accept any foods that I’ve seen. It eats what’s on the rocks.

 

[Turkey head]

I’ve had this one and another that has since died for a long time with corals and this is a recent thing. I believe I have read that pencils have the potential to do this tho and bought it understanding that.

 

[t5Nitro]

Mine has a taste for a certain acro so any time I see it anywhere near the frag rack I move it. Lol

 

[Turkey head]

I have been keeping an eye on it. I haven’t noticed any additional damage or damage on others. The coral still looks healthy though.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

It’s a Eucidaris of some type. It doesn’t accept any foods that I’ve seen. It eats what’s on the rocks.

Ah, yeah, I’d expect to keep eating corals then unfortunately:

Looks to be Eucidaris tribuloides:

"its search for food, which can include sponges, corals, bivalves, gastropods, bryozoans, along with detritus and some algae."*

"It feeds primarily on algae and coral but they can feed on small invertebrates as well. "**

*Source:
http://www.saltcorner.com/AquariumLibrary/browsespecies.php?CritterID=3101**Source:
https://gulfspecimen.org/pencil-urchin/

 

[Turkey head]

I wanted to update. It has left all the corals alone until last night. It are away at the same coral. I put some superglue of the area and removed the urchin from the tank. It’s not to be trusted anymore! Fortunately, I have another small tank set up with no corals.

 

[Aiptaisia anemone]

I think its the rock boring urchin which does eat rocks

 

[tbrown]

Mine ate a dying Acro and several coral skeletons. I put him in the sump to be safe but beyond the possibly-already-dead acro I never saw it touch a live coral, just skeletons.