UV hat for sea urchins

riosouza · Feb 3, 2020

Hello everyone,

I just want to share my little a little discovery with you guys.
After seen my sea urchins carrying snail shells, rocks on their back I decide to read more about it.
Studies reviewed the possible reasons would be to protect themselves against predators and/or full-spectrum light source, mainly against UV rays.
Then I decided to do a quick design for a 3d printed hat, and for my surprise they absolutely love it.
Since I replace the rocks and shells from their back with the hats, they never let it go, and I was astonished to see they moving the hats towards the light source. Which leads me to the conclusion they certainly use it against excessive UV rays.

Bfragale · Feb 3, 2020

Super cool and interesting.

I have been picking all the debris off of mine lol. I thought he was just clumsy and collected debris, but this makes more sense. Cool idea

tdlawdo · Feb 3, 2020

Wow!! Love this!! I woke up to this today

Hemmdog · Feb 3, 2020

I want one! Can you make a little cowboy hat? Lol

Tahoe61 · Feb 3, 2020

Too cool.

Thanks for sharing.

kput · Feb 6, 2020

Please start producing these and selling them.

I don't even have an urchin yet, but I'd like to buy an umbrella hat, top hat, and a propellor hat.

Fishy212 · Feb 6, 2020

TAKE MY MONEY!!!!

riosouza · Feb 9, 2020

Hey guys, sorry for not responding sooner.
As soon as I have a chance I will work on some cool designs and see how they will come out.
I will post some here soon.

rob taft · Feb 9, 2020

Very cool! I like this idea of yours. My little guy/gal is so packed up with small shells and large bits of sand that I'm amazed he/she can move.

reeftigergal · Feb 9, 2020

riosouza said:
Hello everyone,

I just want to share my little a little discovery with you guys.
After seen my sea urchins carrying snail shells, rocks on their back I decide to read more about it.
Studies reviewed the possible reasons would be to protect themselves against predators and/or full-spectrum light source, mainly against UV rays.
Then I decided to do a quick design for a 3d printed hat, and for my surprise they absolutely love it.
Since I replace the rocks and shells from their back with the hats, they never let it go, and I was astonished to see they moving the hats towards the light source. Which leads me to the conclusion they certainly use it against excessive UV rays.

That is hillarious. Mine wore the skelatin of its dead mate for over a year. Smart lil suckers

DeniseAndy · Feb 9, 2020

Interesting. I always thought is was more a camouflage thing. It drove me nuts because they would grab live corals and live snails and crabs. Love those hats!!!!

Houstoner · Feb 9, 2020

God I love this forum

Silver14SS · Feb 9, 2020

Very cool! Maybe novelty hats for version 2? Mario hat, Viking helmet, cowboy hat, etc.

reeftigergal · Feb 9, 2020

DeniseAndy said:
Interesting. I always thought is was more a camouflage thing. It drove me nuts because they would grab live corals and live snails and crabs. Love those hats!!!!

Yeah, and I thought mine was grieving, LOL

Fishy212 · Feb 9, 2020

Op. The R2R community has spoken. Please make some for the R2R community. Oh yeah ...

riosouza · Feb 18, 2020

This weekend I was allowed by the boss (wife) to spend few hours working on the design of a hat or two.
My sea urchin grabbed it, but since the bottom of the hats are not a full arched shape, it does not fit perfectly.
The cowboy hat has quite a large area in comparison to the small contact area for the sea urchin to hold on to it. With the water flow and rocks, the hat will come loose after awhile. If you fit the entire sea urchin in the hat and its brim will be way too big to be carried around. I will make some changes and test them before I will make them available.

Reefyyy · Feb 18, 2020

this is the cutes thing i have ever seen relating to an urchin and I'm kinda dying right now lol this is gold

Reefyyy · Feb 18, 2020

reeftigergal said:
That is hillarious. Mine wore the skelatin of its dead mate for over a year. Smart lil suckers

i don't know whether this is cute or creepy

Houstoner · Feb 18, 2020

T

riosouza said:
This weekend I was allowed by the boss (wife) to spend few hours working on the design of a hat or two.
My sea urchin grabbed it, but since the bottom of the hats are not a full arched shape. Since the cowboy hat has a quite large area in comparison to the small contact point for the sea urchin to hold on to it. With the water flow and rocks, the hat will come loose after awhile. If you fit the entirely sea urchin in the hat, the hat and its brim will be way too big to be carried around. I will make some changes and test them before I will make it available.