pencil urchin and hair algae

[geniusjim]

I have a pencil urchin that has been in my tank for about six months. I put him in shortly after (almost) ridding my tank of hair algae. Now there is almost no hair anywhere in the tank except for covering the urchin. Can I just pull it off him? I am afraid of hurting him or taking a leg off. There is really quite a bit of it on him. He kinda resembles an algae tumble weed. :D Thanks for any pointers.

[bertoni]

You should be able to pull him off carefully. I'd be afraid of poking myself. If you ever see him on glass (or sand), they're probably easiest to get there. A blunt plastic spoon or the like might help.

[greenbean36191]

I wouldn't try to take it off. The spines are covered in tissue and trying to scrub the algae off would likely harm the tissue, which could lead to an infection and kill the urchin.

FWIW pencil urchins aren't reef safe.

[bertoni]

Oooops, I misread this post. I thought you were wanting to remove the urchin from the tank.

I have no idea about removing algae from an urchin.

[spamin76]

urchins often get algae growing on their spines. It's not really something to worry about honestly.

[Rapunzel]

I had the same thing happening with my pencil urchin and this last week one of my scarlet crabs cleaned it off. It was the neatest thing to see. The crab literally crawled right into his spines and just slowly cleaned the hair algae off him. He did it at 2 different times - I think he ate as much as could the first time and had to finish the rest the next day

[peecook]

i had the same thing as Rapunzel, the red legged hermits will eventually catch up with him. i have had my pencil urchins in my reef tank for 9 months with no problems. these guys have almost doubled in size, about the size of a childs fist. their spines are fragile, so be carefully when trying to pull anything off of them. good luck.