Sea urchin eating chocolate chip starfish?

[Robert gifford]

I can home today to find my pencil sea urchin eating one of the legs of my ccs. Will it be ok? I feed the urchin and starfish everyday so I don't know why they would be eating each other.

 

[Naiad]

Interesting... I've never heard of this. The starfish should be able to regrow his arm as long as water parameters are in check and there is no infection. I would be worried about infection though given the strange events

 

[Robert gifford]

I'll send a picture of it when I get back to my house

 

[Robert gifford]

It's kind of hard to see it

 

[Naiad]

It looks like there is damage to the tip of the other arm as well. What are your water parameters and when is the last time this guy ate? I would rule out the main factors for starfish limb deterioration first, water chem and starvation. I am almost certain the urchins actions were not the sole issue here.

 

[Robert gifford]

Salinity is 1.023, ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites are all 0. It eats every night, I have a lot of different frozen foods that I feed it. Are you talking about the white on the tip of the other arm?

 

[Naiad]

After reading up on a few posts it seems that you will have to separate the two. The urchin will continue to eat the starfish. If water is good starfish should recover.

 

[Robert gifford]

Ok thank you. I'm not sure why the sea urchin did that

 

[Naiad]

Pencil urchins are actually omnivorous so they will eat meat.

 

[Naiad]

What I'm not sure of is why the star didn't fight back. If he is eating and in good health it is strange he was over powered. I would watch him very close.

 

[Robert gifford]

Yeah when I looked it up I only found articles about star fish eating urchins

 

[Naiad]

Yes stars are generally more powerful. Urchins usually only pick on dead or dieing animals....