Red Tuxedo Urchin????????

[Toutouche]

I was at one of my usual LFS's today, and I was looking for a tuxedo urchin. To my surprise, they had 2. One was the regular blue type ( although it wasn't a nice intense blue which I THINK is called the "Royal Tuxedo" if I'm not mistaken...., if I am please correct me on this). The blue one was the regular dark greyish steel blue type, and was pretty active. It was full of little pebbles and such which I assume shows it's doing what it does best, and healthy. They said it was from Quality Marine, and they've had it for a couple of months. It looked to me like it was in very good shape from what I could see. Now, my delima is this. There was also another Red urchin that looked exactly identical to the tuxedo. The body was the same dark greyish steel blue, BUT! all the vertical rows of spines were an interesting red color. I've never seen this before. Is this a common one also, and is it actually still a Tuxedo type urchin? Does anyone have any experience with them? Do they eat the same as the blue types? The guy said that he THINKS this one came from Singapore, and they've had it for a few weeks already. This red one was also active and covered itself with all kinds of little pebbles ( it had even picked up an elastic band to stick on it's back!:rolleyes: ). Also, every single millimeter of it's tank and rock was spotless which showed it was cleaning and eating real well as far as any algaes are concerned.
Any help on this decision would be appreciated.
Greg

[Toutouche]

WOW!!! This got buried fast!!!! Sooo....., up ya go!:D

[Mako]

Did it look kinda like this? http://www.premiumaquatics.com/thestore/prods/L-URCHIN.html

I have a herd of the Royal Urchins on pest algae patrol in my 135. They do a good job too. None have the reddish spines though. They are all silvery gray.

[chromis]

I have a red tuxedo urchin, it is a very cool organism, mine was also from quality marine, kinda pricey, I think I paid like $30. Anyways its a good find and I would highly reccomend them.

If you look closely at the spines you will see these bright red patterns and stripes, very cool.




Andrew

[chromis]

Oh yeah, they eat algae, green corraline, purple corraline, bryopsis etc. almost every kind of algae

[Toutouche]

Thanks everyone,
Mako,
Yeah that's it, they both looked like that( except the coloring on the red one that is). I KNEW they were tuxedos ( or Royal), but I just wanted to confirm the red one.

I know all about the urchins, and that's why I wanted one. My concern was the red one. I wasn't sure if it was ALSO as safe.

I have another question. I KNOW they eat the coralline, but I've also read that 1 urchin in a bigger tank such as mine, 60"L x 30"H x 16"w will also disperse the spores while eating it. In otherwords, it won't erradicate it completely as the spores resettle and grow again, kinda like a bee does pollinating the flowers as it visits them. Can any of you who actually have one of these urchins confirm this or not? Lastly, so are the red ones more of a rare find than the blue ones? SHould I get it before it's gone?

Chromis,
Can you post a pic of your red one by any chance? I'd like to compare it to the one I saw if possible.

[Toutouche]

Up ya go.....:)