What are your thoughts on Urchins?

[d2mini]

I have at least two black medium spines in my tank and one purple pincushion urchin.
I love to watch them move around, very neat creatures and the black ones grow really fast. But part of me is annoyed at them, especially the pincushion for moving things... like the frags off my frag rack. I'm wondering if I should keep just one black one and take the other two to my lfs. Then again, I'm afraid of what "good" they might be doing and I wouldn't want to upset that.
Thoughts?

[coralfish]

I keep a long spine in my fuge with macroalgea. None in the tank as they knock over my corals

[spamreefnew]

My urchins did a great job of cleaning,,better than anything else,,,but I got sick of rock slides

[baby1-]

they knock off rock and coral better off in the sea than in my tank

[Daniel62]

I Love my urchin (tuxedo) sure he sticks things to himself, but he also made sure that my rock work was very stable. I think it's funny that everyone wants a piece of the reef, but not this or not that. Just like an articule I once read about yellowstone park. In one of their guest books under suggestions was this note " really love the park, but could you please do something about all the animals running around, they really scare me" LOL

[reefsforme]

In my opinion, they have boths cons and pros. They are great scavangers of the aquarium. Needless to say, even corals can become part of their diet. I would only keep them, if I have a FOWLR, and not a reef aquarium, as nothing stops them in their path.

[syrinx]

For fish tanks they are fun- but I am not into them for reef tanks. Everyone has listed the issues-and i will add a lot of them eat coraline algae. The black ones grow real fast. As far as daniel and diversity- I would keep most anything that came in on my rock or sand- but adding things just to have them doesn`t make sense, Many tasks in the reef are redundant, and another less problematic animal can be used.

[89Foxbody]

I have a pincushion in my tank. He's annoying at times but also endearing I suppose. I occasionally will see a snail or a hermit crab stuck to him and trying to escape. Also he picks up and moves my frags sometimes but I haven't seen anything go missing yet. Sometimes he comes really close to my BTA, which the BTA doesn't like, so that's annoying, but overall it's a pretty interesting creature.

[RRaider]

Originally Posted by Daniel62

I Love my urchin (tuxedo) sure he sticks things to himself, but he also made sure that my rock work was very stable. I think it's funny that everyone wants a piece of the reef, but not this or not that. Just like an articule I once read about yellowstone park. In one of their guest books under suggestions was this note " really love the park, but could you please do something about all the animals running around, they really scare me" LOL

So how far do you want to carry this? I mean AEFW, Gorilla crabs, ich, and parasitic isopods are all naturally found on the reef, do you keep those around too? Should we add Crown Of Thorns Starfish to our tanks as well? There are lots of things that belong on the reef that do not necessarily belong in our tanks. Trying to compare a minuscule closed system to an actual reef is an excise in futility. Because our systems are so limited each person has to choose what is appropriate in his/her system. This is why you don't see zoo's housing lions with gazelles or zebras, they both inhabit the same territory but that doesn't work out so well in an enclosed environment.

[jeff@zina.com]

I love urchins. I just like coraline algae more.

Jeff

[bigdoug]

I have a black long spine, love it, it does move a frag no and then but does a great job eating up the leftovers. My son cracks up when it shoots its turds all over. I too like my coraline but one in a 125g I don't notice much.

[sneeyatch]

I have a single longspine in my 150 and I like it. Makes anyone think twice about sticking their hands in there and is a dramatic showpiece IMO. People love seeing it in there. Mine's very nimble. As long as it's been in there, it's never knocked anything over and it can shift and bend and avoid all kinds of things. It's probably larger than a large grapefruit I guess.

I've also owned tuxedo's in the past and never again. Those are bulldozers and I have them take off with things - never to be seen again.

[Daniel62]

RRaider, I do agree with you there are limitations to are tanks, but most of us (myself include) have such a mish mash of ocean creatures. That what most of us have is more an abstact idea of a reef, rather than an actual slice of the reef. I have seen very few reef tanks on RC that look like the places I have dove at. But, I still love my piece of the reef, urchins and all
I also try for some good diversity within my reef, sure I do not want a gorilla crab in my tank, but I do have other crabs that fill that nitche some what, same goes for snail, star fish etc. You get the general Idea.
Happy reefing everyone LOL

[The Escaped Ape]

I like to eat their ovaries placed on top of small mounds of vinegared rice.

[zero26]

I had a pencil urchin, ate my xenia and chomped alot of coraline, goodbye urchin!

[Runfrumu]

It's like blind folding someone then putting them on a lawnmower and letting them cut the grass.

They'll get alot of grass cut, but they are gonna knock stuff over in the process.

I got about 10 in mine, and as long as stuff is secured they usually dont mess up a whole lot.