black longspined sea urchins

[dakotaschley]

Does anyone know if black longspined urchins can harm any of my fish or starfish? can they eat corals?

 

[sjfishguy]

Fish are fine. Mine used to nibble at my general star but never really hurt him bad. I had him in my reef for like a week and he would eat the rim of my encrusting montis as he was trying to eat the algae on the rocks near the edge. Back to the LFS he went. He didn't bother anything else. They are pretty reef safe but they may grind at something as they are trying to eat algae.

 

[str1988]

I have one in a 65 galon and he has grown cosiderably in a few months. He was hard to find when I first put him in the tank, now he is the size of a grapefruit (including spines). He has not bothered my LPS, soft corals, or fish . He also does not bother my starfish, hermits or any other mobile inverts, however the rock I have is "scrubed clean" of just about everything covering it that I started with.

 

[Drix]

I had one for near a year. He had an affinity for Coralline algea but otherwise diddn't touch anything else.