sea urchins

[tzabor10]

I have kept a longspine for 7 years. He demolished GSP and red monti. Leaves carpet anemone mushrooms and zoas alone. There is spectacular coralline algae. He is fascinating. Reacts when anyone comes In the room. Begs for food on the front glass, and eats everything.

 

[PeterEde]

I have kept a longspine for 7 years. He demolished GSP and red monti. Leaves carpet anemone mushrooms and zoas alone. There is spectacular coralline algae. He is fascinating. Reacts when anyone comes In the room. Begs for food on the front glass, and eats everything.

Mine come to surface for nori

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

my tuxedo ate clove polyps but has not bothered anything else.

 

[tzabor10]

my tuxedo ate clove polyps but has not bothered anything else.

I think clove polyps are delicious for many reef creatures

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

I think clove polyps are delicious for many reef creatures

I know they spread like crazy but he took care of that. thinking of getting some more as a special treat for him this Christmas.

 

[PeterEde]

Pity they dont eat Xenia

 

[Lebowski_]

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

Mine picked up a hammer frag and I laughed but was about to head to the office so I left it, when I came home they had dropped it in a perfect place, and it’s much happier than where I had left it ‍

 

[jason2459]

My tuxedo likes any kind of algae growing on the rock including coralline. I can see the path it has taken.

Yesterday it picked up one of my mushrooms. Has some gravel and a dwarf cerith as well.

 

[Narideth]

I love my tuxedo urchins, and other than decimating my batch of firework clove polyps, there's never been harm done to my corals.

I'm not even sure if the cloves were eaten either. He kept running over them and they weren't solidly glued down so he wore a few around for a while but the colony didn't survive him constantly mowing over them while all of the other corals reacted more like they'd been groomed with a fine toothed comb. I can't say if they were just ripped up and didn't survive it, or were eaten.

 

[kevgib67]

I love my Tuxedo urchin, it’s my avatar! The best cuc I have. It does eat coralline as mentioned. It has never eaten any coral but I wish it would eat clove polyps! I’ve had mine coming up on 2 years.

 

[Lebowski_]

here’s a pic of my tux eating nori. I added a 4” strip last night and it’s about 75% of the way through.

Bonus photobomb by my baby Trochus snail who is sneaking in for a little breakfast

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

Just caught Oliver doing some weight lifting. Lifts 4 times hit weight. Had to intervene so he didn’t drop it from the top.

 

[Tangs-A-Lot]

I had some GHA and got a purple short spine pin cushion urchin. He needed help, so I got a tuxedo urchin. The purple pin cushion did laps around the tuxedo. He would literally go about 10X farther than the tuxedo. May not be the case with others. They’re both going strong 6 months later.

 

[tigre44]

I have a tuxedo and black short spine the tuxedo is the hardest working animal in the tank never bothers anything in the tank but constantly cleans the rocks. The other one does the same but much slower.

 

[nothing_fancy]

I have a pincushion, short spine, and long spine and I haven't seen any of them bother coral however if there wasn't enough Coraline algae perhaps they might. IME especially with the long spine in particular, water parameters should be stable and lots of Coraline should be available so a decently established tank is important. Unfortunately the long spine variety will shed it spines if there are stressors and soon after usually die. This happened to me when adding one to my tank as part of clean up crew too early. I tried again a year later and have had a healthy one ever since.