New to urchins. ID and info request

Hey all,

I just picked up my first urchin this past Friday. It was in a tank with a long spined urchin that was twice it's size, however the person working at my LFS couldn't tell me what species it was. Hopefully someone here can help in the ID. It has a slight purpleish hue under my lighting.



I drip acclimated this guy for about 3 1/2 hours, just because. On day 2 of his life in my tank it seems to be doing fine. Boy does it poop a lot! Is their poop ok for LPS? I ask because some of it drifted onto my acans and paly's. Any particular members of the CUC that are efficient in cleaning up after them?

TIA

 

I think it is a pencil urchin. The LPS will be able to deal with the poop just fine. Hermits will probably do well for dealing with the poop along with Nassarius snails.

 

Thanks bud!

 

Had one and re-homed it. Will totally wipe out your coralline algae in no time flat!! And any other macro type algae as well.

 

I would say short spined black urchin. I had one alot like it but with a little bit of purple coloring. I really liked him but all he did was eat coraline. He die fighting an emerald crab.. and the fight took out the crab too.

 

Make sure everything is glued down because it will mow over your sps like no tomorrow.

You might be able to provide sheets of nori once it eats all your other algae.

Sometimes they are nocturnal and just do not move around during the day.

If it starts dropping spines it's in trouble.

Congrats.

 

Found out about it's mowing capabilities last night. The only coral loose in the tank is a small RP frag attached to a piece of rubble rock. He put it on it's side with ease.

For now it seems pretty occupied with the macro algae in the tank. Not too worried about the coralline algae just yet since there's an abundance of that. It seems to remain in a shaded area of the rockwork during the day with only slight movements.