Urchins: Love ‘em or Hate ‘em?

[Daniel@R2R]

I'm thinking about getting an urchin...a Halloween urchin to be specific. But I figured I'd ask for some "urchin reviews" to start with. What's your take on them? Yay or nay? I do realize that IF I get one, I'll need to be sure I have glued down anything I don't want hitching a ride around the tank. Anything else I should be thinking about?

 

[John08007]

I had a black long spine 15 yrs ago, stung me and I will never buy another. Believe even gluing your corals down you may still have a problem. Think they pretty much mow over anything in their way.

 

[WVNed]

I have 3 longspines, a tuxedo and a short spine. They are urchins, how exiting can they be. They walk around and eat.
Occasionally they eat things you dont want them to like the pond foam I glued some stuff with or zoas.

They do knock stuff down sometimes.
You are supposed to keep your hands out of the tank anyway. Yes I have been stabbed a couple of times. I didnt die.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I had a black long spine 15 yrs ago, stung me and I will never buy another. Believe even gluing your corals down you may still have a problem. Think they pretty much mow over anything in their way.

I definitely wouldn't be doing a long spine...just not enough room in there for him.

 

[mindme]

I have 2 pin cushion urchins. I won't buy any more of them.

They are awesome algae eaters, maybe a little too awesome. First note: If you buy those painted purple rocks from carribsea, you wasted your money because the urchins will eat the paint off. Doesn't hurt them, but they will turn that rock back to white.

And everyone will mention they bulldoze, but I personally never had trouble with that as my coral are all glued etc.

Those things are not a big deal to me.

The reason I will never buy them again is because they chopped down my branching hammer coral. I had a nice colony going with 3 big branches and each branch having a baseball sized group going, with multiple heads in each branch. One day, I was doing something in the tank and barely brushed up against a branch...and the entire branch fell off. The heads themselves were still perfect, all the tissue was there. But something had eaten the skeleton part of the branches.

2 branches fell off about the same time. I looked at the 3rd one and it was hanging on by about 10% of the branch that hadn't been eaten.

So I'm freaking out thinking it's a pest or something like that. Check water, alk is fine,ph is fine, etc. Look all over the coral for somethng that could be eating away at them, nothing. I had no clue what was happening and the heads were all healthy.

And then one night I saw an urchin on the part that was left. The next morning that branch was also chopped off and on the ground. Ah ha!

I have multiple tanks, so I took them and moved them to a tank without the urchins. The eating stopped. So now I have 3 frags of branching hammer coral.

The urchins don't mean to do it. I think what happens is the branches get a little coat of algae on them since it's not tissue. The urchins just go to eating that algae and because they take such deep bites out of things, over time they mowed the branches down.

So in short, be prepared for them to eat the algae and just a tiny bit more of the surface.

 

[WVNed]

 

[Auquanut]

Love/hate. I have a pincushion and a tuxedo in my 125. I've never had any issue with them munching corals, and if I ever lose anything in the tank, they they will eventually bring it to me. They also do a really good job with algae/coraline control. They tend to bulldoze things around a bit, but I can live with that. BUT, my pincushion ate the insulation off of a power head cord. That I can't tolerate! I started a thread on the subject, but didn't get much response. I'll forgive the damage this time, but if it happens again, he's got to go.

 

[Waters]

I love them....won't have a reef tank without them. They are the most prolific algae eaters in my tank. Worst thing they do is carry around my shrimp molts lol. As already mentioned, I would just stay away from the long spine urchins do their size and ease of getting tagged by their spines.

 

[John08007]

I love them....won't have a reef tank without them. They are the most prolific algae eaters in my tank. Worst thing they do is carry around my shrimp molts lol. As already mentioned, I would just stay away from the long spine urchins do their size and ease of getting tagged by their spines.

I have never looked at one after my long spine sting. The smaller ones, pencil and pin cushion, do they sting?

 

[Waters]

I have never looked at one after my long spine sting. The smaller ones, pencil and pin cushion, do they sting?

No.....they are harmless as far as I know. I have had to handle mine a few times in the year that I have had them.

 

[jda]

They are my preferred algae eaters. I have plenty of algae, so they don't eat any corals. They will carry around stuff that is unmounted - just have to live with this.

I mostly use Pincushions from the Florida Keys since they are hardy, cheap and look nice. They won't tolerate too high of N or P levels, but reasonable is OK.

They will eat coralline, so if you don't have much and cherish it, then don't get urchins. I don't care and they can eat as much as they like.

 

[Jon Fishman]

I have a pencil (or long spine) a White one, and a Halloween. The Halloween drags the most stuff around, but it’s certainly my favorite


I’m planning on 4-5 more urchins

 

[jda]

BTW - pencils are not reef safe in most situations. A few do OK, but many have issues with them. Long Spines are different and are usually OK.

 

[Miller535]

I love mine MOST of the time. They do an amazing job, they outlive any snail 100 to 1, making them a fantastic cuc member. Every once in a while it picks up a frag and really makes me want to throw it out the window.

I have a rose urchin and a colored pincushion.

 

[jda]

I had a larger pincushion take one of my brand new blue squamosas for a ride across the tank. That really sucked. Glad that they grew a bit.

 

[Alaeriel]

Personally, I adore everything about urchins. I love watching them wave their tiny tube feet around, I love watching them pick up things to use as hats, I love watching the disgruntled hermit crabs who are often very fashionable, and I love how much algae the little guys chow through. I glue all my rocks together anyway, so I don't foresee any issues.

 

[Key-tie]

I love my urchin, nothing does a better job of cleaning the live rock and glass.
But they do not only eat algae.
Here's my guy right now, after taking down and eating a turbo snail that has been in my tank for 2 years.
As you can see, the snail was as big as the urchin.
And believe me, the snail was active and healthy and mobile.
So in my opinion, urchins are awesome and facinating, but they will eat almost anything they can catch.

 

[GainesvilleReef]

I have 7 pin cushion and tuxedo in 3 different tanks. Very interesting animals. Won't have a tank without them now.

 

[dvgyfresh]

I have one long spine urchin and he is a beast , leaves a white trail on the rocks due to how clean he makes the rock from algae. I feed him Nori and he loves it, very interesting tank mate I think urchins and cleaner shrimp are must haves in almost every reef tank. Urchins legit look like aliens lol

 

[X-37B]

I have a halloween and a tuxedo.
They did not touch hair algae when I had it, its all gone now.
They do eat alot of coralline though which helps alk consumption some.
I have had both about 9 months now and the back wall was solid coralline and now it is not.