sea urchins

[Fishing in the dark]

ok I have been getting conflicting answers from breeders reef stores and the internet. Need your help. I LOVE sea urchins but have been told that they will eat my corals..I LOVE my corals and been very successful One person tried to sell me a purple sea urchin it looks very healthy but was told the only one that will not bother and eat my corals is a tuxedo urchin but then I am told they are hard to keep. So I would appreciate any info good or bad. Reef2reef members your honesty on any subject is helping the newbies 2 years in but still feel like a newbie be better reefers. thx to all in advance.

 

[CoralB]

As long as they have food they are imo hard to keep at all. I have tuxedo urchins that are going on Four years old and are going strong . I Never had a issue with them eating coral .

 

[Fishing in the dark]

As long as they have food they are imo hard to keep at all. I have tuxedo urchins that are going on Four years old and are going strong . I Never had a issue with them eating coral .

Thx do love the tuxedo ones they are cute do you feed them or can you feed and if so what

 

[Zach B]

I have owned several urchins and have yet to have them eat coral. However this is my experience, not saying it doesnt happen. They did and will eat coralline algae though. Best of luck

 

[Fishing in the dark]

I have owned several urchins and have yet to have them eat coral. However this is my experience, not saying it doesnt happen. They did and will eat coralline algae though. Best of luck

thx for the help

 

[JoJosReef]

What corals do you have? I've never seen my pencil or tuxedo urchins eat any corals. They decimated my macroalgae, but so far zero damage inflicted on corals. My tux picked up a loose colony of zoas and work it as a hat for a few months. Zoas made out fine, though.

RE: difficulty keeping, tux urchins do not tolerate parameter swings in your tank. One of mine died when I did a water change with LFS water that was at 1.039sg, which obviously drastically changed salinity in the tank. Spines dropped off a day or two later and it was dead. I don't think they like other parameter swings, either. If your tank is relatively stable, they are pretty hardy.

 

[CoralB]

Thx do love the tuxedo ones they are cute do you feed them or can you feed and if so what

I’ve never put food out for them . They eat off the rock and glass and probably any left over pellets or flake that made it past the fish . I will agree with what Zack B said as I am not able to keep coraline or any algae for that matter

 

[Fishing in the dark]

What corals do you have? I've never seen my pencil or tuxedo urchins eat any corals. They decimated my macroalgae, but so far zero damage inflicted on corals. My tux picked up a loose colony of zoas and work it as a hat for a few months. Zoas made out fine, though.

RE: difficulty keeping, tux urchins do not tolerate parameter swings in your tank. One of mine died when I did a water change with LFS water that was at 1.039sg, which obviously drastically changed salinity in the tank. Spines dropped off a day or two later and it was dead. I don't think they like other parameter swings, either. If your tank is relatively stable, they are pretty hardy.

good to know everythiing has been steady but you just never know but I am a little craxy about testing. Your urchin sounds cute they seem to have character

 

[JoJosReef]

good to know everythiing has been steady but you just never know but I am a little craxy about testing. Your urchin sounds cute they seem to have character

My pencil urchin was cute but useless. Didn't touch any filamentous algae. Didn't even touch coraline. I didn't know what it was eating until I found it was eating the paint off of the CaribSea "Life" rock. Apparently that was enough. The tux did all the work along with its two turbo snail henchmen. I spent months feeding them nori and algae tablets because there was nothing left for them to eat.

 

[taricha]

I like urchins. I would buy any urchin I've ever had again except for pencil. They didn't eat the algae that I had a lot of and they were more destructive than my tolerance.

 

[Paul B]

I just lost this guy, presumably from old age as he was with me for about 12 years. He was about 5" long and never bothered anything.



I also used to have a sea urchin collection business and once when I had to many, I put 24 of these in my reef. They also didn't hurt any corals.



Maybe other types will hurt corals, I don't know.

 

[CoralB]

I just lost this guy, presumably from old age as he was with me for about 12 years. He was about 5" long and never bothered anything.



I also used to have a sea urchin collection business and once when I had to many, I put 24 of these in my reef. They also didn't hurt any corals.



Maybe other types will hurt corals, I don't know.

Paul is the a zoanthid in the first picture ?? A frogspawn in the second ??

 

[AydenLincoln]

I have a pincushion and he’s never eaten a coral. I don’t feed him either since he eats all the algae in the tank. They do however like to wear frags and shells on their heads lol!

 

[I never finish anythi]

I had a pencil urchin that ate some of my soft corals . My tuxedo is cool tho .

 

[Paul B]

Paul is the a zoanthid in the first picture ?? A frogspawn in the second ??

A frogspawn. The thing got huge

 

[Lebowski_]

Thx do love the tuxedo ones they are cute do you feed them or can you feed and if so what

Not sure if anyone answered this, but I feed mine roasted nori, which we use for sushi (make sure it has no additives like garlic).

Very inexpensive. He comes up on the glass once the rocks are clean. They are extremely efficient cleaners!

 

[Lebowski_]

Maybe other types will hurt corals, I don't know.

This is awesome Paul. Did you have to eventually intervene and take the FS off it?

 

[FrugalReefer]

Love my Tuxedo. I’ve had him for almost a year with no issues. They can be bulldozers though. You have to make sure your frags are secured otherwise they’ll get picked up.

 

[Paul B]

This is awesome Paul. Did you have to eventually intervene and take the FS off it?

I probably did as I doubt he put it where I wanted it.

 

[PeterEde]

I am pretty certain my longspine ate my star polyps and some zoas.