Urchins

[Mike628]

Is a tuxedo urchin reef safe?

 

[Tahoe61]

Mine have been, they do eat coralline algae, no biggie, and they knock over corals and can walk away with the power head covers and such.

 

[Mike628]

Ive heard they will eat zoas. Is this true?

 

[Tahoe61]

Mine never ate the zoanthids or palys, I have never heard that, but nothing is completely reef safe. Sometimes inverts become opportunistic feeders when they run out of their specific food source. I have had urchins several times and never had an issue with them eating corals.

Edit: I successfully feed my nori sheets when algae was running low.

 

[Mike628]

What do they actually eat?

 

[Tahoe61]

Algae grazers, that is the reason I got them. They are awesome algae eaters, if you do not have enough algae you have to supplement their feedings with algae waffers or nori sheets. My urchins ate both enthusiastically.

 

[Mike628]

Will they eat leftover foods?

 

[Tahoe61]

They might eat some but I would not consider them part of a clean up crew that consume detritus and other organics.

 

[Mike628]

Ok thank you. I wanted to move mine into my bigger tank but i was concerned

 

[Tahoe61]

Well maybe someone else will chime in with reports of coral eaters. I have had one guy at the LFS tell me they were not reef safe, that has just not proven to be the case in my experience. I have anemones, clams, zoanthid...you name it.

 

[Mike628]

Thank you so much for your help it is greatly appreciated! I have another question how can i get my zoas to become brighter colored and develop more polyps?

 

[Tahoe61]

Awww jezzz, you'll have to go to the zoanthids pros/gurus for that. I have a ton of Rastas and SunnyD's but I do not do anything special. Mod lighting, I do not blast them with light like my Acroporas, and mod flow I use MP. I do feed SpongePower, ReefRoids, and Pohls. Mine do well but probably because I ignore them LOL.

 

[Mike628]

Lol i dont feed or dose mine but i feel like i should.

 

[Tahoe61]

I have heard that the stronger the flow/within reason the longer the skirts and that is true with my SunnyD's. Everything in my tank responds well to SpongePower and Reefroids.
As for developing more polyps, I have also heard that if you set a different type/frag of zoanthids next to another they will produce more polyps faster, it's a battle to see which zoa gets the monopoly on real estate, it could be an old wives tale, not sure, sounds good.
My zoanthids probably grow two new polyps each week, seems about average.

 

[Mike628]

Wow thats interesi interesting I did not know that. All I have is a small little fire and ice frag and a small little radioactive dragon eye frag

 

[w.lohrman]

Mine has run across my zoa many times if there are any dead or detaching it will pull them off and you can see where mine travels across the rock work eating algae

 

[w.lohrman]

Wow thats interesi interesting I did not know that. All I have is a small little fire and ice frag and a small little radioactive dragon eye frag

Same 2 zoa I started with

 

[w.lohrman]

Here are some ultra blow pops

 

[Mike628]

Wow @w.lohrman