My newish urchin ate a small toadstool overnight.
*pictures below
My primary questions are:
1. What type of urchin do you think this is?
2. Is this type of urchin known to eat leathers or other soft corals (or LPS) ?
Urchin purchased as “Halloween urchin” from online vendor, received 7/24/2026 (so 1 month ago).
Doesn’t look very “Halloweeny” but I assumed that was because it lost a lot of spines in shipping.
Tiny toadstool has a long back-story of neglect but was discovered (forgotten in back of tank) and remounted many months ago (early 2026).
Toadstool has been doing fine and growing (albeit maybe oddly-shaped) for many months.
Toadstool looked fine during the day.
Urchin was found on top of toadstool the next morning with most of the toadstool gone, down to a nub.
Here’s the urchin:
Here’s the only close-up I could find of the toadstool (from about 3 months ago):
*toadstool actually had more growth than this now but just to give some reference
Here’s the toadstool now:
I assume responses will be that toadstool was likely dying/decaying but, while not impossible, doesn’t fit with my recent visual observations.
If urchin is a coral eater, I might want to try to “direct” it to some zoa or Kenya tree overgrowth before I remove it.
*pictures below
My primary questions are:
1. What type of urchin do you think this is?
2. Is this type of urchin known to eat leathers or other soft corals (or LPS) ?
Urchin purchased as “Halloween urchin” from online vendor, received 7/24/2026 (so 1 month ago).
Doesn’t look very “Halloweeny” but I assumed that was because it lost a lot of spines in shipping.
Tiny toadstool has a long back-story of neglect but was discovered (forgotten in back of tank) and remounted many months ago (early 2026).
Toadstool has been doing fine and growing (albeit maybe oddly-shaped) for many months.
Toadstool looked fine during the day.
Urchin was found on top of toadstool the next morning with most of the toadstool gone, down to a nub.
Here’s the urchin:
Here’s the only close-up I could find of the toadstool (from about 3 months ago):
*toadstool actually had more growth than this now but just to give some reference
Here’s the toadstool now:
I assume responses will be that toadstool was likely dying/decaying but, while not impossible, doesn’t fit with my recent visual observations.
If urchin is a coral eater, I might want to try to “direct” it to some zoa or Kenya tree overgrowth before I remove it.
