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02/03/2008, 03:54 PM
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#1 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: New York
Posts: 886
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urchins
Are pincushion urchins reef safe?
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Matt Current Tank Info: 75 gallon reef |
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02/03/2008, 04:18 PM
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#2 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Florida
Posts: 1,321
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For the most part yes,but some will make a meal of any desirable corralline algae.Also some have the tendancy of picking up items to hide under.This can cause problems,especially if it is a prize coral frag.HTH
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"It's not the size of the dog in the fight;It's the size of the fight in the dog!" -Sir Winston Churchill. Current Tank Info: 92G Corner tank, 250 wt 14K MH, 20G sump, 5G fuge, mixed reef |
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02/03/2008, 04:20 PM
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#3 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: over yonder
Posts: 1,751
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They will pick up everything they can, and some surprisingly large things at that. Other than that, yes they're reef safe but munch on coralline.
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02/03/2008, 04:28 PM
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#4 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Upper Peninsula of Michigan
Posts: 143
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Mine moves things around that are light enough to do so. He also eats some coraline. Once in awhile he also makes a trip right across my corals. The worst effect is they close up for the 10 minutes he is there and then they are fine again. I have SPS, Softies and a LPS. Never bothered them as far as making them a snack
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02/03/2008, 04:47 PM
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#5 |
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Premium Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 3,646
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They just pick things up, knock things down, and eat your coraline. If you can live with that, theyre fine
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02/03/2008, 08:47 PM
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#6 |
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lost ball in high weeds
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Gadsden, Al
Posts: 504
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I had a nice looking pink one for a while. I was a total PITA. It knocked over rocks and moved everything it could. It also ate pathways through my coraline. I liked the little thing but had to give it away.
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"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right." — Henry Ford Current Tank Info: 265 mixed reef, 110 fowlr, 40g fuge, 75g sump. |
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02/03/2008, 09:07 PM
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#7 |
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Recovering Detritophobe
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Cary, NC
Posts: 7,443
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I love urchins. They do pick stuff up, but all your frags should be glued down anyway. And I never cared about corraline, or understood the weird obsession about it.
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If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right. I remember when zoanthids were called things like "green" and "orange" and not "reverse gorilla nipple." Current Tank Info: 180g reef with all the bells and whistles |
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02/03/2008, 09:48 PM
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#8 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: New York
Posts: 886
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couple questions: Is there any negative response of the urchin eating corraline?
- also, a pincushion urchin will eat hair algae right? after many threads on this site, phone conversations and trips back and forth to my LFS I had cyano red slime algae 3 weeks ago, diatoms 2 weeks ago, and now the diatoms turned out that its not actually diatoms because my phosphates are perfect (0) so it was determined by someone at my LFS that it is detritus algae, and now I realized that on almost every rock that has "detritus" algae on it is stringy hairy and green "green hair algae"... So basically I need a slug or an urchin that will take care of the green hair algae for me thanks
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Matt Current Tank Info: 75 gallon reef |
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02/03/2008, 10:49 PM
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#9 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
Posts: 270
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I have a blue tuxedo urchin, that I really like. I have to pick stuff off his back every few days, but i think he's an intersting part of the tank. This morning i woke up to him carrying a my small (1 headed) torch coral on his back (he thought he was starting the olympics off... haha). But he eats hair algae.
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02/03/2008, 10:56 PM
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#10 |
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Registered Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: FL
Posts: 414
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Seahares eat algae
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