Do you still have urchins in your reef?

[GuOD]

I bought a tuxedo urchin because I thought he looked totally great! I still do I guess... but the constant effort of removing lots of polyps and stuff from him drives me nuts. It manged to frag off like 3 pieces of one of my polyp patches in 1 night! Right now I'm about to go save some other small frags it dragged around.

I've also seen some upside down turbso snails struggling to get off his back!! What a jerk!!

So - tell your urchin stories (if you still have one!!)

[mile sq. reefer]

Urchins (Tuxedo) are bulldozers for your reef that act like velcro. They will consume many different types of algae, coralline in particular, and nothing will get in their way to get at it. I took mine out a long time ago.

[A sea K]

I've got 2 with only occasional minor problems. I don't have many corals yet and none of the ones I do have are glued down so the occasional tip over can't be avoided.
The certainly like the corraline but not much else. I've got plenty of LR so the corraline usually grows back before they hit the same place. One good thing, when I had my hair algae problem they would collect a mass of it and when they came around to the front I'd just pull a mat right off them so I guess they helped to a degree.
Haven't found them to be much of a problem so they are staying for now.

[fishyface]

mine crack me up constantly. he's been cruisin' around with pulsing xenia's on him...ya never know what he'll be wearing next!

[mwwhite]

Love ours too -- pincushion and tuxedo.... and your right you never know what they will be wearing.... i bet that pulsing xenia is a pretty funny sight. Ours has a frag of a candy cane on him.

[frederickk]

Mine is in the sump now and he will probably stay there also,

[Sk8r]

I had a variety of pincushion, tripneustes gratilla, that will really take after caulerpa...the drawback was, as you say, his bulldozing, but he was extremely careful of corals, didn't like to touch them. If you putty your rocks, he's safe. And he ripped off bubble algae to wear, which was a side bennie. BUT he grew like a bandit, went from small to fist-sized inside 3 months [they grow at the joints] and I had to trade him on to a larger tank.

[LobsterOfJustice]

Believe it or not, there is an urchin under there!

I have four of them, pencil, tuxedo, pink/white pincushion, and a black rock boring one. I love them all. Nice little creatures, typical reef inhabitants, and great at eating algae.

This is the same urchin without his hats:

[ACBlinky]

I adore my pincushion urchn 'Speedy'. He wears cerith and nassarius snails, the occasional astraea, sometimes hermits, as well as bubble algae, rubble, zoas, bits of halimeda, and empty shells. He always puts the snails down and they continue on their way, so I tend not to worry about rescuing them. Urchins make great pets, but you definitely need to invest in putty epoxy or they'll walk away with your corals -- they'll bulldoze and/or wear anything for a hat

[Dingo Dog]

I put two in that were supposed to help decrease a GHA problem I was having. All they did was bump into and knock around my corals, eat my coralline and mark up my LR by leaving a white trail everywhere they went. They had no positive affect on removing the GHA so after 3 weeks, I returned them to the LFS. I also didn't like them backpacking some of my crabs around the tank like hostages. For me, they were nothing more than a waste of time and effort.

[shred5]

I have not used an urchin in like 13 years. One was chewing up the glue in the corner of my tank.. Since then I have not had one in my tank...

Dave

[GuOD]

It looks like we've all run into the same problems... just some people are willing to tolerate it

I'm thinking that I will move him to my sump as soon as I get it setup... but what about him moving around in there and getting macro attached and stuff? Is that a problem?

[Putawaywet]

I love my urchins. I've even trained mine to play fetch. Whenever my Nori clip pops off the acrylic I just tell him one of them to go get it for me.

Ok, granted, they're not going to break any speed records with their less than stellar reflexes... but if you are patient enough, say... three or four days or so, they'll bring it right back.

Brett

[KyleO]

Originally posted by frederickk
Mine is in the sump now and he will probably stay there also,

That where mine is destined to go............if I could catch him!!!

[GuOD]

Originally posted by KyleO
That where mine is destined to go............if I could catch him!!!

How can you NOT catch an urchin?? Unless it's one of those long black spikey ones (that I'm too afraid to touch!) then I see no problem

[glaudds]

Honey, is that a frag sticking out or are you happy to see me??

[The Saltwater Kid]

I love my Tuxedo Urchin! His name is Herbie. He has been a model citizen so far. Most of my corals are superglued in place so he really can't knock them over and he never goes onto any of the corals themselves any way. I once found him wearing a small toadstool leather frag and it was hysterical. He finally released it after a couple of days and it was no worse for the wear :-). He is currently wearing some macro algae and a couple of empty shells (although I have seen him pick up a couple of snails before and that was just too funny...lol). If he does get too big and become more of a nuisance I'll pop him into my aquafuge but as of right now he's probably the coolest tank inhabitant I have.

[KyleO]

Originally posted by GuOD
How can you NOT catch an urchin?? Unless it's one of those long black spikey ones (that I'm too afraid to touch!) then I see no problem

Take a look at my tank..........(gallery). I have a TON of LR and made sure that it could support (and hide) many creatures. Unfortunately the urchin knows this (pincushion) and almost never makes an appearance. I check the tank all times of the day and night (until around 3:00am or so) and have only seen him once in the past two months.

He was half poking out when I tried to grab him the last time and he clamped down and then moved away. Short of dismantling that whole area, there was nothing I could do.

Does anybody know of any way I could "bait" him out?

There is lots of coraline in the sump part of the refugium that he is welcome to..........

[hbjacobs898]

i've had a tuxedo urchin for four years. He's been great. They pick that stuff up as camoflauge, of sorts. Makes them feel secure - is a sign of good health. I think it's great/funny!

[salty3]

I have a rock boring urchin in my reef for about 9 months and he has'nr moved anything or bothered anything. Rock boring urchins IMO are the best urchin for a reef, they stay small and bother nothing.

[plandy]

Same here, got three of them which has not bothered anything nor wearing anything over themselves. They do a super job cleaning up the live rock surface and in general cleaning stuff. I love them!

[jhuggins]

My urchin is bright pink and purple. It is the first thing people talk about. Yes it disrupts frags and corals like crazy but it is still fun. Mine normally doesn't have anything stuck to him. He did have zoas and a mushroom on him for a week.

[tkeracer619]

I have a basketball sized long spine and a tuxedo. I also think its funny/great when the tuxedo changes his suit/cammo. The long spine used to be bad with coral, now he is a bit more carefull around the reef.

[LobsterOfJustice]

The little black spikey ones (rock boring) dont pick things up and move them. Make sure they are the ones that will stay small, and not just juvenile longspines.

[RichConley]

I dont really have any problems with my urchins. If they can pick something up, it wasnt fixed down properly, and one of my snails would have knocked it over anyways.