Long Spine Urchin Eating Xenia?????

Hey Everyone, Hoping you can share your experience here. I have Xenia that has been in my tank for over a year now and doing well. Anyway, I noticed last night that my long spine sea urchin looked like it was eating it. I quickly brushed him along and he left it alone for the rest of the night. Well today I get home after being gone all day and my Xenia is not fully extended. Upon closer look one of the heads was off completly and a couple of the others looked slightly chewed as well.

Everythng else in the tank has been in there for a long time with the exception of the urchin and a yellow wrasse of which I have not see go near any of the corals. At this time I am blaming the urchin but wanted to see what you all thought before I passed down sentencing. Will a ling spine Urchin eat corals??

 

Most urchins are not reef safe, so yes unfortunately.

 

The long spine is supposed to be though which is why I was a bit caught off guard. Anyone else have experience with these. I put him in to help control the coraline algae of which I think he has been doing.

 

Bump- Anyone?

 

ive seen mine on my xinia ill hafta look closer at it...no major damages yet though

 

I just took it out and move it to my other tank. Caught it back on the Xenia again. The Xenia will likly not make it which is a shame but not the end of the world. However if the $9 urchin eats a $150 coral I'm really going to be upset so I thought it best to play it safe.

Everything I read says these are reef safe. Some would argue that they are the most reef safe of all the urchins. The only thing I can think is that there is not enought debris in my tank to feed it so it's hungry and taking matters in to it's own hands. Shame the urchin was a cool piece to have in the tank.

 

I've heard of some urchins munching on some types of softies like xenia but it's all anecdotal. Generally I believe they're pretty reef safe, nothing is ever set in stone when dealing with individual animals IMO.

No offense, but from the stories I've heard of xenia taking over tanks I think it's doing you a favor.