Sea urchin or not?

Wow, I'm totally getting one. What about being poisonous to other inhabitants?

 

i got one because i had a brown wafer algae problem its safe to say hes doing a great job cleaning that crap off the rocks. I personally wouldnt get one if its a new tank maybe wait a year or so for your system to acquire a lot of algae for it to graze on

edit - also they wont harm anything but if it is threatened it will point its spines at what ever is causing it to feel that way such as a fish or you hand

 

We have 4 of them (all different types) and they are very cool. The pencil urchins can be little bulldozers but as long as your rockwork is good they dont do any harm. Our tuxedo and our rainbow pick up everything and carry it around which is pretty funny to watch as well. They really grab everyones attention and ours are super active.

 

Cardinal fish will actually use an urchin for protection.

I had one in my 45 for about a year. It got massive. Almost 10 inches in diameter. He got so big that he would break his spines just moving around the tank.

Just keep in mind, that there are two species of long spine generally available to the hobby. One stays fairly small, the other much, much bigger.

 

I saw one on foster and smith that gets 10". I suppose that's the large one? That's rather big for a 55g(12"x48").

 

Other than the fact that they can move a rock that is 20 times their size and the tend to pick up just about anything and move it from place to place Urchins are reef safe.

I have had two in my seahorse tank for 2 years now, They are black or rock urchins. They resemble Long Spine in size and color but their spines are much shorter.

They will clean most types of algae including Coraline off of your rocks in no time. This is why I have them because the tank is a Seahorse tank and because there is so much food left uneaten there is a tendency for bumper crop of hair algae and the only place that it grows right now is on my HOB filter outlet and this is only because they cannot reach it.

actully then use them when breeding, the Fry hide in the spines after hatching. People who beed them either keep one in the tank or make phony ones.

 

I liked my long spine until it started devouring by polups. now im up in the air.

 

Saltwater Aquarium Inverts for Marine Reef Aquariums: Longspine Urchin, Black

Here's the Longspine. Is the smaller kind just a miniature?

 

my long spine black urchin mows down coraline like there is no tomorrow...keeps my back glass clean..lol

 

No one has specified what the name of the other smaller one is.. Please do.