info about an urchin

This little urchin came with one of my LR. Can anyone tell me about it? IE: care for and what kind is it.

Steve

 

Urchins are algeavores and yours appears to be a Pencil Urchin. They require no special care, just good water parameters, duh, and they will graze away. They can be a little bit of a buldozer and rearrange your rock work as they get to be adult size.

 

Is it reef safe? [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

Steve

 

I wouldn't want one in my reef, but I have seen them in a reef tank.

PS:

A ton of my wife's family lives in Omaha.

 

Why would you not have one in your reef? Just trying to get a feel of what to do. In your experience has there been any animal or plant that it would have a problem with?

Steve

 

Just a personal thing.

 

Spikey things and anemones aren't cool, but some people don't care.  Others will say that it will devour and destroy all your coraline algae, while even others say yes it eat the coralline, but poops out coraline spores which help propagate the coraline.  

It will definitely move around your rock formations, so I advise that if you want to keep him, and you like the way your rock is laid out now, use reef cement or adhesive or something so the little guy can't grow and push a small boulder out from under a huge peice of LR and have it all come crashing down.

Question for 3reefers: do urchins contain [glow=green,2,300]toxins[/glow]. I had one hitchhike in (just like Steve's), days later the little guy can't be found,  and the tanks starts to crash, snails die, brown algae everywhere, red slime, Tankageaddon.  It was nuts.  I wonder. help!

 

This could be your toxin link David:

Scattered among the primary and secondary spines of a sea urchin are minute stalked appendages termed pedicellariae. These resemble tulips, having a long stalk and bulbous head, with the head being composed in most cases of three valves. The three valves that form the head act like jaws, snapping at anything that touches their sensors. Globiferous pedicellariae (pictured above) are especially effective against even quite large predators, such as starfishes, because they are venomous. Each valve ends in a needle-like tip and is associated with a poison gland, either on the valves themselves, as above, or at the top of the stalk. There are some species that are dangerous to handle because of these poisonous pedicellariae.

 

Now that's what I call up close and personal!

Excellent information Craig! I learned something new today

 

That's why it is always a good idea to wear gloves, eh?

Thanks AC!