Tuxedo Urchin Pushing its Luck

I have a tuxedo urchin in my 110 and it has been "reef friendly" up until about a week ago. It loves to pick up small rocks and camouflage itself with them, only problem is now its trying to do it with my corals. I have caught it on several occasions picking up my smaller frags such as mushrooms and candy cane, and toting them around on its back so I had to glue them down. Last night it killed a bunch of zoa polyps trying to pick up a huge colony which was way too big but that wasn't going to stop it from trying. It has also been crawling over my brain corals and they are starting to show signs of stress. The urchin has been very good at keeping algae down and has been quite active but I am thinking it's time to bring him back to the LFS. Anyone with urchin experiences or advice to share?

 

Yup, my advice is to return it to the LFS because it's not going to stop doing what it's doing. I had a tuxedo pick up a 3" maxima clam once. Luckily, I was able to pluck it off before the urchin decided to dump the clam someplace where it couldn't get any light.

 

It did that to one of my candy canes, dropped it behind my LR. I had to take apart some of my rock structure and retrieve it to keep it from dying.

 

Pain in the tuckus isn't it? Too bad too because they're cool looking urchins.

 

I was considering a Tux until now. My pencil Urchin got one my mushrooms to come lose and I found him 4 days later in the rubble pile, still living he also killed some other things here. Needless to say the Urchin is history. Makes me wonder about Urchin's in general. Do they all just one day go ballistic!
Danny

 

That's why i opted for the longspined urchin. Some say poisonous, but i just got *****ed last week and it's like a bee sting. Can't pick anything up though

 

I have a tux urchin and like every one says it picks everything up and carries and dumps stuff about the tank... I just glue or putty frags down to help the pick up and go.. As far as coral dammage i have yet to get any(knock on wood)..


Good Luck..!!

 

I have one of each and would not get rid of either of them. Funny what you find stuck to them after they have been in the rock for a while. I have a snails on mines back upside down trying to find something to attach to. They finally will fall off.

 

Oh i forgot.. i should have took a picture but some how it picked up my horse shoe crabb and carried it to the top of the tank.. Poor thing was kicking and well not goin any where... that only happen once...



Good Luck..!!!