Short Spine purple urchin eating coral.

[Brady4000]

Hey all,

so I had this urchin for about 3 weeks and everything was good, until it found this favia coral it decided it wanted to eat. It’s a new coral and still on the plug, so I moved it. It found it a day later and started eating it. I mean not moving for hours just chomping down on this thing. So out of frustration I moved the coral to the coal rack at the top of the tank. Sure enough the dang thing was attached to the coral on the rack….

I have other Favia in the tank, but it only goes after that coral…

So now the urchin is in the sump. Here are my questions.

-Can it live it’s lift in a sump without any substrate or rock?
-What’s the chances that if I gave away that coral, it will just pick another coral?

Thanks!

 

[dvgyfresh]

Urchins in my experience love to eat certain corals, usually soft corals mine eats the clove polyps and GSP every now and again. It will probly deplete the sump of food and starve unless you have a fuge

 

[Brady4000]

Urchins in my experience love to eat certain corals, usually soft corals mine eats the clove polyps and GSP every now and again. It will probly deplete the sump of food and starve unless you have a fuge

The sump is 1/2 fuge. 10g, so 5g fuge 5g free room.

 

[Brady4000]

What’s the chances of this thing moving to another coral if I move that coral out?

 

[radiata]

Anyone have recommendation for an Urchin that eats Xenia?

 

[Brady4000]

Anyone have recommendation for an Urchin that eats Xenia?

Honestly if it ate Xenia, I would be more worried about breeding it then removing it.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Your.sure it wasnt.just.cleaning the new.plug.u put.in.for.him?
D

 

[Brady4000]

Your.sure it wasnt.just.cleaning the new.plug.u put.in.for.him?
D

100% sure….. it puts the center of its body in the coral not even touching the plug. The coral is like 15% eaten.

 

[Brady4000]

and it finds that coral no matter where I move it.

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Dang. Little bugger! Lol.
U gonna re home the urchin?
Take to a fish store?

 

[Brady4000]

Dang. Little bugger! Lol.
U gonna re home the urchin?
Take to a fish store?

Eh.. I really like it.. and it has a name purple haze… I might just get rid of the coral. Was hoping, someone could til me if I got rid of the coral would it move to another coral.

I have a buddy who tossed me some free frags, thought I would pay it back. It’s my favorite Favia BUT the urchin is sentimental lol

 

[Brady4000]

Or maybe it would be happy in the sump?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I think itll fade away in ur sump. Not the good fade either poor little purple haze. Lol. Kool name.
D

 

[Brady4000]

I think itll fade away in ur sump. Not the good fade either poor little purple haze. Lol. Kool name.
D

Yea, ok. I won’t leave it in there. Ok it’s settled I’ll give the coral away and give purple haze a second chance.

Off subject:
Wouldn’t it be cool if you got life advice from R2R. Like just talk it out and make a decision lol.

Hey guys I really want to buy this golf cart… it’s kinda expensive but it would be awesome.

R2R: Make, model, amount, maintenance records, bill of sale or title. Why do you want it? 2, 4, or 6 seats. Can you post a few pictures of the undercarriage and engine

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

I dont know anything about golf carts sorry. Lol! How many batteries does it have? Lol. Green or white?
D

 

[176327]

Yea, ok. I won’t leave it in there. Ok it’s settled I’ll give the coral away and give purple haze a second chance.

Off subject:
Wouldn’t it be cool if you got life advice from R2R. Like just talk it out and make a decision lol.

Hey guys I really want to buy this golf cart… it’s kinda expensive but it would be awesome.

R2R: Make, model, amount, maintenance records, bill of sale or title. Why do you want it? 2, 4, or 6 seats. Can you post a few pictures of the undercarriage and engine

It may have just gone rogue.

I have one too, recently he’s decided his life’s purpose is to eat GSP. He’s a great cleaner, but he’s going to have to go.

same thing, if I move him he goes goes back. I added some new blue center gsp to the tank to speed up totally covering the wall. He went straight for it.

 

[Timfish]

To be honest my thought is there's something wrong with that frag. The urchin is probably doing you a favor eating it.

 

[Brady4000]

To be honest my thought is there's something wrong with that frag. The urchin is probably doing you a favor eating it.

Please explain? It’s wasn’t injured..

 

[jpark457]

I have one that lives with a bunch of soft corals and a few LPS. Never eats any of them but does bulldoze it’s way through them sometimes and has knocked some polyps free of the rock or carted surprisingly large frags off from where I had them. The first time it plowed through a bunch of Kenya tree I was worried it had eaten it but nothing seems to have been consumed just knocked around.

def still interesting enough, a solid cleaner and a favorite of my kids so it’s there for the long haul

hope yours leaves things alone! May be the coral got munched incidentally along with algae the urchin was actually after?

 

[Timfish]

. . . The coral is like 15% eaten.

Please explain? It’s wasn’t injured..

This seems to be a contradiction to me.

Over the decades I've seen a few times damaged coral polyps and tissue eaten while apparently healthy polyps and tissue next to what's eaten is left alone. When animals that don't eat coral suddenly decide to eat some I'm now inclined to just watch to see happens. If they are removing damaged or unhealthy tissue that might give rise to Brown Jelly or something else they've done me a favor in my book.