will an urchin eat the tips of sps?

[coralbeauties]

I have been experiencing the tips of several corals being nipped off on several of my corals over the last several months. I was thinking that it was probably one of my tangs but a buddy mentioned tonight it might be a long spine urchin that was added a month or so before the problem started. The tips are being eaten off skeleton and all. It isnt a daily thing but will happen maybe once a week. I removed my desjardine tang tonight and was going to wait to see if it stops but I might just remove the urchin also.
thanks
Jeff

 

[Lloyd Williams]

The urchin surely will. My pincushion took a bite of my mind trick yesterday and bit the tip of a green slimer frag

 

[coralbeauties]

seems hard that it would be able to get clear up to almost the top of the cali tort. But it does make sense that only several of the corals are getting eaten on. They are the ones that the urchin is able to get too according to the corals location.
thanks
Jeff

 

[jda]

Not usually. If an urchin decided to much on your acros, it would eat them around the base and where it could get to easily. I do not think that it would crawl up a frag, much a bit and then crawl back down.

FWIW - I only use pinchushions from the Florida Keys, but I have found them to be very much coral safe. The eat soft algae first and when that is all gone, they will eat coralline. I guess that other kinds can be more of a risk.

 

[jda]

Those spots look like they were broken off. I would suspect a fish. Tangs, angels, rabbits are all suspects.

 

[coralbeauties]

they were definitely munched and not broken. It is a long spine urchin so I doubt it could even get close enough to get to the base of a coral. either way I remove the urchin to my frag tank and one of the tangs to a qt tank. I can watch the display, and frag tank and see if more damage occurs and where. Basically a process of elimination to see where the damage happens next or doesnt happen. Should know in the next week or so.
thanks
Jeff

 

[rodney]

they were definitely munched and not broken. It is a long spine urchin so I doubt it could even get close enough to get to the base of a coral. either way I remove the urchin to my frag tank and one of the tangs to a qt tank. I can watch the display, and frag tank and see if more damage occurs and where. Basically a process of elimination to see where the damage happens next or doesnt happen. Should know in the next week or so.
thanks
Jeff

Did you find out if it was the urchin ? I caught mine eating a birds nest coral and found a streak eaten on one of my brains.

 

[coralbeauties]

I had forgotten about this thread. Yes it was indeed eating my sps corals. I ended up getting rid of a well behaved flame angel thinking he was eating my corals when it was the stinking urchin. It is now in someone else tank.
Jeff

 

[rodney]

I had forgotten about this thread. Yes it was indeed eating my sps corals. I ended up getting rid of a well behaved flame angel thinking he was eating my corals when it was the stinking urchin. It is now in someone else tank.
Jeff

Thanks mine is in my sump tank now!

 

[SeaDweller]

I have an hippo that likes to take bites off acros so I’d second that it’s a fish, if it’s looking like that.

 

[rodney]

I have an hippo that likes to take bites off acros so I’d second that it’s a fish, if it’s looking like that.

My foxface is the only other suspect. I haven’t seen him be interested in the coral. Will watch for more damage! Thanks!

 

[cracker]

I "heard my Black Long spine will eat corals .However mine never did .

 

[rodney]

I "heard my Black Long spine will eat corals .However mine never did .

The ones I’ve had in the past haven’t either. But I’ve seen the damage Ware he was hanging out both times.

 

[coralbeauties]

I think it might depend on each individual and also how much other foods are available for the urchin to eat.
Jeff

 

[Ocelaris]

I once had a tuxedo urchin bite off an algae covered tip of my oregon tort. The tort had some die back, which algae then took over, and the urchin took all the algae and some of the coral. BUT this was a live saver as the algae was getting long and smothering the coral, so I was extremely grateful. Eventually the coral grew over the now "clean" skeleton, and prospered.

 

[Ocelaris]

dp deleted

 

[rodney]

I moved mine out of my DT and into the sump tank then I’ve seen no more damage!

 

[Steve H]

Long spine urchins (Diadema sp.) do this. My large “herd” of urchins sometimes leave tracks on top of corals with relatively minimal damage that quickly recovers. However, on a rare occasion they will grind down large angled portions of a SPS colony. Target feeding the urchins and conservative stocking density may avoid these issues.

 

[Pharmasqueek]

I know that this is a response quite a bit later, but I caught my short spine purple urchin on my blue skippers tenuis acro frag and the skin was slightly torn at the bottom, then the rest of the skin slowly peeled away over the next day. I love my urchin and am not going to get rid of him, but I had to put a barrier of sorts behind the rack I have all of my acro frags on to prevent this from happening again. You can't blame the little guy for doing what he's going to do naturally. This is before it totally de-skinned and I hoped it wouldn't, but knew it would. Acros have such thin skin when they're frags.