Urchin releasing fountain of white balls

[Starfishandseahorse]

UPDATE: Every response I receive confirming the balls are poop gets to play a part of the mounting evidence that I just spent multiple hours of my life staring at, photographing, and squishing urchin feces (multiple times) with my bare hands. Then I posted about it online for all to see.


whaaaat am I looking at? An urchin I have had for 5 years has a fountain of round cream colored white spheres coming out of the top of it… I’ve never seen this before and it’s captivating. It’s been happening at a rapid pace for about an hour with no end in sight.
Is it pooping for the first time in years and making up for lost time by expelling 5 years worth of poop in one glorious fountain? ( kidding- kind of haha)
Am I just seeing it poop for the first time because I’ve just never noticed before?
I am dying to know what I’m seeing.
I netted some of it out and took a close up photo. It’s a different color than the sand and I grabbed a single ball with tweezers and squished it and it fell apart into a creamy greenish slimy substance. There wasn’t any sand in it at all!

I’m attaching pics of the balls as well as a video of it happening in real time.

The video!:

 

[EricR]

No expert but I'd vote just excreting waste -- mine does the little white balls out of the top periodically also. (Doesn't usually let it accumulate on top of his "head" though but probably no big deal).

A couple of spines on the sand wouldn't freak me out because I see that every so often when vacuuming sand but, if you start seeing more, then I'd worry.

Not sure what common, captive lifespan is since I've only had mine about 2 years.

 

[Starfishandseahorse]

No expert but I'd vote just excreting waste -- mine does the little white balls out of the top periodically also. (Doesn't usually let it accumulate on top of his "head" though but probably no big deal).

A couple of spines on the sand wouldn't freak me out because I see that every so often when vacuuming sand but, if you start seeing more, then I'd worry.

Not sure what common, captive lifespan is since I've only had mine about 2 years.

Thanks Mike! I just figured out how to upload a 30 second video and it appears to be working so if you are also as interested and invested in the mystery of the urchin poop as I am, feel free to give it a look and let me know if it looks like what your urchin does.

 

[EricR]

Getting more responses confirming it is poop means I get to enjoy the knowledge that I spent an hour of my life staring at, photographing, and squishing urchin feces (multiple times) with my bare hands. Then I posted about it online for all to see. Do I have my life together or what? Hahaha

Ha ha. I was sure I must have an old video of mine relieving itself so even searched for about 20 minutes then gave up.

Mines about the same,,, maybe a little faster.
Time for you to look into some Max Flow urchin bowel regulator or something.

 

[Starfishandseahorse]

Ha ha. I was sure I must have an old video of mine relieving itself so even searched for about 20 minutes then gave up.

Mines about the same,,, maybe a little faster.
Time for you to look into some Max Flow urchin bowel regulator or something.

I love that you spent time trying to dig up your urchin poop video! I definitely would be interested to see it!

I didn’t know there was such a thing as an urchin bowel regulator! I will check it out right now! Who wouldn’t want to research and learn all about Urchin poop and bowel issues just for the heck of it? This is important information I need to know!

Thanks for the reply! Always happy to chat with a fellow aquarist and have it reinforced that we are all insane.