Urchin being picked on by hermits

bearman88 · Sep 28, 2020

just put in a new tuxedo urchin, smaller sized. My hermits wont leave him alone! I see him turned on his side with them picking at him. Are they just curious to their new mate or what? Worried he wont get left alone to start grazing on algae. Any tips? Thx :)

r20crazy · Sep 28, 2020

my guess would be unless you see the urchin moving it may be dead

spiraling · Sep 28, 2020

I would separate it from the hermits - like in a tupperware with open lid.
You should see it extending little clear tenticles as it checks out what's around.

bearman88 · Sep 28, 2020

oh wow.. I think he's donezo. My pom pom crab has what appears to be his 'heart'.. wow I feel terrible >< getting him out now.

bearman88 · Sep 28, 2020

The first foul play I noticed was my pistol shrimp had a hold of him, trying to take him into his cave. Not sure where I went wrong here, but for future reference, the tux urchins should be able to defend themselves off from pistol shrimp / hermit crabs, right?

BloopFish · Sep 28, 2020

bearman88 said:
The first foul play I noticed was my pistol shrimp had a hold of him, trying to take him into his cave. Not sure where I went wrong here, but for future reference, the tux urchins should be able to defend themselves off from pistol shrimp / hermit crabs, right?

The only defense urchins have are their spine and shell, a determined crab is basically immune to that and could just break open the shell. Though I've never seen a small crab like a dwarf hermit crab or pom pom crab do that, usually a sizeable crab breaks open urchins... so perhaps its the pistol shrimp? But personally have never heard of pistol shrimps killing urchins - main predators on the reef for those guys are large crabs and large fish.
You may have had a dying urchin that all the crustaceans took advantage of, if you've ever been diving and seen a fish break open an urchin - you will observe a crazy feeding frenzy because the roe of the urchin is so delicious... I think there are videos online like that.