What's happening to my sea urchin?

[NicksTanks223]

I just got home from being away for over a year and notice that my sea urchin looks quite different. I'm not sure what part of its life cycle this is but i've never seen one look like this. It seems to have 5 areas running from its mouth to the other end of the digestive system. and in those areas you can clearly see white spines and white (polyps?) holding the spines in place. I've also never seen these little black tentacle looking things, I'm assuming they're for feeding but i could be wrong.

 

[taricha]

here's another pic of a longspine urchin with a similar 5-symmetry white spine pattern.
https://images.app.goo.gl/Wz4c3gtP6V2o2h8d9
the black tentacles are the tube feet of the urchin - that's how they move around (mostly).

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Yeah, urchins do seem to turn white like this both in aquaria and in the wild:

From what I've read, it seems many specimens develop more and more white spines as they age.

Long spine white urchin?

I’ve had this long spine urchin for like 2 years. Seems perfectly healthy. As time goes on, some spines have turned white in a radially symmetrical (non random) pattern. Normal?

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