ToadstoolCoral155
Active Member
Alright, don't worry, this will be somewhat of a rant but a readable one at least.
This week I got extremely lucky, my LFS got Tuxedo Urchins in stock, red ones too. And they only get them about once a year as well, and since I have never ordered livestock online, this is the only place I can get my Tuxedo Urchins and the like from.
My first Urchin died in a tank crash months ago, my second one died only a month ago along with every other Urchin at my LFS, and I just got a Red Tuxedo Urchin. He was doing fine the second I put him in the tank after 1 1/2 hour acclimation, so it was more than enough especially since I dripped the dang thing. He was doing perfectly for 3 days until today when I got home from school, he was in the corner of the tank in a rock cave, not moving. I assumed that he was just being inactive, and as far as I knew he was in ***PERFECT HEALTH*** at the time, no spines dropping, stacking things on his top etc.
Then about an hour ago late at night I checked and he was in the same spot. He was being swarmed by fireworms, and fireworms in my tank only come out when there was food. I pull the urchin out from his spot and inspected him. He wasn't moving yet hadn't lost spines. I brushed my finger on him and spines came right off, and a thorough whiff smelled of death and ammonia so I immediately disposed of him before the ammonia would kill everything else in my tank.
At this point, I do not know what could possibly be causing my Urchins to just die. Should I get a pinchusion instead? Is it a virus or parasite that lives in my tank and persists even without Urchins? And I know my water is fine, I have plenty of corals in my tank and they are all doing perfectly. In fact my frogspawn is either spawning or healing rapidly, and he's doing very fine.
Parameters- Nitrite- 0, Ammonia- 0, Nitrate- 0+?, Calcium 450PPM, salinity 1.024(checked with calibrates hydrometer). No copper has entered the tank. Also, I use reef chrystals
Livestock- NPS Sponge, NPS Sea Fan Gorgonian, Diamond Goby, Frogspawn, Various Zoanthids, Xenia coral, lots of Macro algae, green star polyps, blastomussas.
This week I got extremely lucky, my LFS got Tuxedo Urchins in stock, red ones too. And they only get them about once a year as well, and since I have never ordered livestock online, this is the only place I can get my Tuxedo Urchins and the like from.
My first Urchin died in a tank crash months ago, my second one died only a month ago along with every other Urchin at my LFS, and I just got a Red Tuxedo Urchin. He was doing fine the second I put him in the tank after 1 1/2 hour acclimation, so it was more than enough especially since I dripped the dang thing. He was doing perfectly for 3 days until today when I got home from school, he was in the corner of the tank in a rock cave, not moving. I assumed that he was just being inactive, and as far as I knew he was in ***PERFECT HEALTH*** at the time, no spines dropping, stacking things on his top etc.
Then about an hour ago late at night I checked and he was in the same spot. He was being swarmed by fireworms, and fireworms in my tank only come out when there was food. I pull the urchin out from his spot and inspected him. He wasn't moving yet hadn't lost spines. I brushed my finger on him and spines came right off, and a thorough whiff smelled of death and ammonia so I immediately disposed of him before the ammonia would kill everything else in my tank.
At this point, I do not know what could possibly be causing my Urchins to just die. Should I get a pinchusion instead? Is it a virus or parasite that lives in my tank and persists even without Urchins? And I know my water is fine, I have plenty of corals in my tank and they are all doing perfectly. In fact my frogspawn is either spawning or healing rapidly, and he's doing very fine.
Parameters- Nitrite- 0, Ammonia- 0, Nitrate- 0+?, Calcium 450PPM, salinity 1.024(checked with calibrates hydrometer). No copper has entered the tank. Also, I use reef chrystals
Livestock- NPS Sponge, NPS Sea Fan Gorgonian, Diamond Goby, Frogspawn, Various Zoanthids, Xenia coral, lots of Macro algae, green star polyps, blastomussas.
