Urchin losing spines- help

AnnaG · Mar 9, 2022

Hi, my urchin has been losing spines, ive just noticed quite a few on the sand bed. I put it down to either he's hungry or possible salinity shock when my ATO put a little bit too much water into the tank (but I think he's hungry). I only just noticed them today, so its still quite new. The other thing is, he was sitting on one of my corals, so I ticked him off by pushing him off of the coral, to which he quickly scurried away. I fed him some nori seaweed which he took thankfully, but is there hope? Will he be okay???

Pistondog · Mar 9, 2022

Salinity shock. They are very sensitive.

AnnaG · Mar 10, 2022

Pistondog said:
Salinity shock. They are very sensitive.

Any hope? Can I help him at all or should I euthanise him ?

DaJMasta · Mar 10, 2022

It depends on the species, but salinity shock of less than 1ppt per day or so change is probably not much of a deal, over that maybe there's a problem, but there's a chance it could live.

Is it shedding spines, or are they just coming off? If they're breaking off, maybe something's bothering it or it fell, but that does not necessarily mean it's unhealthy. If they are falling off, especially in patches, that is a bad sign, though if it's still eating I wouldn't try to euthanize it.

If you can see the tube feet active or the spines wiggling around and it's eating, there's life in it yet.

G Santana · Mar 10, 2022

Some time ago mine lost a bunch and I started direct feeding nori, he made a full recovery.

hawk82 · Mar 10, 2022

When I dosed Vibrant both my urchins lost all the spines and died :(

Simon Reefing · Mar 10, 2022

I would add nori to the tank

G Santana · Mar 10, 2022

hawk82 said:
When I dosed Vibrant both my urchins lost all the spines and died :(

I dosed Vibrant twice in one year with no effect on my urchin

AnnaG · Mar 11, 2022

G Santana said:
Some time ago mine lost a bunch and I started direct feeding nori, he made a full recovery.

Marcelo Simon said:
I would add nori to the tank

DaJMasta said:
If you can see the tube feet active or the spines wiggling around and it's eating, there's life in it yet.

Amazing news!! he’s alright- looks like he was just really hungry- it was not salinity shock. I started feeding him lots of nori and he’s making a good recovery and it looks like he’s not losing any more spikes. I thought he was eating enough but i was wrong so now i know he’ll need some nori in his diet too. Really happy, he’s such a fun little thing and it would have been a shame to lose him.