Rainbow urchin

Anyone have a rainbow urchin in their reef? I've read that these need monitoring. I know they are voracious algae eaters, but I fear the rainbow urchin might stab corals with his spikey sharp spines.

Anyone have good experiences with these guys!? ;D

 

I have not with this particular...but imo urchans are trickly little buggers...unless u have a big tank the rock will be just big play toys for the urchins...that can move and bore into the rock causing it to become very unstable...but depending on the size...well lemme look up these guys and get back to you...we just got a whole bunch of urchins at the lab ill see if we got any

 

I have a black long spine urchin. It really doesn't bother anything in my tank other than eating some corraline algae, but it eats alot of the microalgae. Doesn't bother any of my corals and really hasn't knocked over my live rock. I did get careless and cleaned the tank glass in the tank and got stabbed by his spine but it wasn't that painful. They are very interesting and awesome to look at! The are also very good water monitors as well. One of the first things to go in your tank when their is a problem with your water.

 

Ya I know, first thing they lose at the sign of bad water is their spines. I just like the overall look of that particular urchin, but wanna research him reeaaaaalll good before purchasing one. And I'm also looking into a small one, nothing monstrous. And yea, the "eating corraline" part I absolutely do not like.


Here is a link to a picture of the urchin, since he is so difficult to look up.

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/Rainbow-Urchin_498_4_63_97.html

 

Probably a bit late for your purposes, but the little pink guys that saltwaterfish.com calls "rainbow urchins" are indeed reef safe. They're not especially prone to knocking over or carrying away frags (any more than a snail of the same size) and they DO eat coralline. They don't grow very fast, and they seem to max out around 2.5" across the body.