New Urchin ??'s please

[tigereye37]

I just got a new orange/navy blue tuxedo pincushion urchin and I had a quick question about supplemental feeding. I know that for the most part it will graze on the algea in my tank, does it feed primarily on film type algae or filimentous type algea? I've heard it will also feed on coraline algea of which i have plenty. My main question is when providing supplemental feeding such as nori, how do you give it to the urchin? Do you place it in front of him, or kind of place it onto his feeler arms? Also since this is my first urchin, how do most people go about handling them? Exactly how sharp are those spines? :-)

[gholland]

You can buy something that looks like a "chip clip" with a suction cup that you can stick the nori in. We typically don't even bother sticking it to the wall... just let it sit on the bottom. My wife likes to feed her urchin by hand. She just holds it near the bottom of the urchin until its feet grab hold. The spines aren't going to get you unless you impale yourself.

[Kemo484]

Mine munches on the algea in my tank but once a week I add an urchin cookie. I use this recipe http://www.stanford.edu/group/Urchin/cookie.html I cut the recipe in half though and freeze them so they last longer. My tuxedo enjoys them and keeps him from munching on the coraline as much.

[tigereye37]

thanks for the info! right now "Spike" (I know, very original) is hiding, but he seems to be doing pretty good.