Can I put My Urchin in here to eat Algae

M

MaineReef88

New member
Hi there, I have a question about my urchin,

I recently put a MH light on my 29g tank, and added a couple corals to it (bubble coral, plate coral, pipe organ, GSP, Trumpet, and a few mushrooms)

I now have this VERY nuisance algae (I am guessing from the new light) It is green and Thick, it coats the sand and goes up the edge of the glass and the rocks, it looks like solid webbing the way it stretches over rocks and things, it is very dark green and thick. When I scrape it off, or take it off the sand, it is back the VERY next day. There IS plenty of flow in the tank.

My question is would a pincushion urchin eat this ( I have been told they eat ALL algae) and I cant seem to find out if it will eat my corals or not - Some sights say yes it will eat coral, some say now it wont bother them, What does anyone think?? Thanks so much!!!
 
My pincushion eats a lot of different algaes - even bubble algae. However, it sounds like what you've got is a form of cyano, which is not actually algae but a form of bacteria. Nothing really eats it. Manual removal is probably the only way to get it out of your tank.

Maybe it will go away when your tank has adjusted to the additional lighting. Or you could do a blackout and reintroduce the new light gradually by putting several layers of screens over the top of the tank, gradually removing them one at a time over a period of a week or two until you're up to full speed.
 
urchins dont eat corals. they may disturb your corals by budging them around or picking them up to make themselves camaflauged.
 
BTW, i have 2 urchins in my wifes small tank right now that are eating alot of different types of algea including cyano right now.
 
Urchins LOVE coraline algae. Its their favorite thing. And some urchins will eat coral. I have a "pencil" urchin from the Caribbean that I have had to shake loose from a gorgonian -- it was eating the gorgonian and had removed flesh from that coral. In my 56 gallon tank, the urchin's ability to eat coraline is about equal to the coraline's ability to grow back. I have also seen this urchin feeding on a dead fish before.
 
yes they will eat coraline algea. like it is going outa style more like it.

Elysia, i seriously doubt that the pencil urchin was actually trying to eat the gorgonian. it was possibly trying to eat the algea off of it and being as the gorgonian is so soft it was probably taking some of it with the algea. i have owned alot of different types of urchins and never once have i seen or had a problem with an urchin actually eating my corals. i will do some more research on this subject but i would actually need to see some kind of article proving me wrong here. hence the reason why i will do some more research.
 
Its alright, Guy. I didn't want to believe it, either. Will you believe Calfo & Fenner? Do you have their "Reef Invertebrates" book? Page 331. "Eucidaris tribuloides, known by many names including: Mine, Pencil, and Club urchin. This very common import is collected mostly in the Tropical West Atlantic. A solitary species, the Pencil urchin may feed on algae, bryozoans, sponges, and tunicates in the wild. It behaves like a carnivore most often, though, and is one of the least effective algae grazers for aquarium use." That is the urchin species I own. The gorgonian in question was chewed down to its horny core only where the urchin was attached. I am afraid it was eating the gorg.

But other urchins are carnivores as well. On page 330, they mention Echinothrix calamaris, the Hatpin urchin. "It is unfortunate that this strikingly patterned urchin is so risky for aquarium use. An indiscriminate feeder, this species should be kept singly and may prey on cnidarian livestock."
 
looking into the subject so far i have found a few articles stating that urchins will eat tunicates, sponges, bivalves, bryozoans and algea. but nothing on corals yet. im still kinda iffy on that one though as even the book you mention does not indirectly say corals, LPS, SPS or alike. im still looking into the subject though and have even heard a person saying that they had a pencil urchin eat there cleaner shrimp..... wich i find impossible. i just dont see how an urchin as slow as it is catch and kill a cleaner shrimp.
 
I had a pincushion urchin eat a head of frogspawn, and some zoas. They prefer coralline, but will eat other stuff too.
 
The shrimp probably died, and the urchin ate it. People always look for a scapegoat. I did though see a pencil urchin kill and eat a shortspine rock urchin.

The pencil urchin, is the most likely to venture into eating your coral.

I'n my reef, you can see by clicking the little red house, there are 3 shortspine urchins "rock boring" who in 3 years have done no noticable harm.
 
I have a long spine urchin in my 100g reef tank, he is awesome in his ability to mow through algea. But I have also witnessed his ability to mess up my corals. I didn't actually see him eat my Xenia but I came home to a bunch of "pulp" that used to be my xenia and the urchin only a few inches away....with a guilty look on his face. I did watch in horror as he inched past a frog spawn branch that he didn't actually eat but by passing by it poked it enough to cause the branch to die off in less than a day. After that I had to relocate him to a different tank. So I can't say they "eat" corals....but they can sure mess them up.
 
thanks for that article Elysia. there was alot of good reading in there that opened my eyes abit on some things. sucky thing is alot of people say different things and write different things. some things hard to beleive but i guess thats the chances we take.
 
I agree. Except Ron Shimek does have a back ground in marine inverts.

"Graduate school came to an end in 1977, when I was awarded a Ph. D. for my efforts. Most of my work involved direct effort on the natural history, morphology, and population ecology of turrid gastropods. Did a lot of secondary work with sea anemones, sea stars, sea urchins, tunicates and some fish. Subsequently, I learned what a bad career choice my research specialty was as nobody, except me, cared about turrid gastropods."

"In 1983, I took a two-year contract as Assistant Director of the Bamfield Marine Station (now Bamfield Marine Science Centre) on Vancouver Island, BC, where I had taught Marine Invertebrate Zoology for the preceding two years. Did a lot of work on scaphopod mollusks and sea anemone interactions during this period. Also went to Palau for the first-time. Was also chief scientist for a PISCES IV research submersible program and got about 25 dives done in various localities surrounding the marine station."

Etc.
 
there are so many different people who have some good background in marine biology that there opinions differ. it is hard to weed thru some of the info sometimes. different views are good though, they help others see some things that normally would not be noticed.

a good read none the less. i will be keeping a closer eye on the few urchins that i have right now to see if i notice any of this happening.
 
bah... another thing i seem extremely hard to believe is how an urchin could kill a shrimp. the difference in the speed alone makes that hard to believe! i would love to see some pictures of this in action :lol: would be a site too see.
 
Stranger things have happened... I had a regular ol' mushroom (not the fish eating Elephant Ear or anything) that perpermint shrimp would climb over all the time... until one day the 'shroom just pursed up around it. I had to wrestle the peppermint shrimp out of the shroom. The shrimp was a bit traumatized at first, but went on to live for some time, as did the shroom (who I started to feed every other week or so.)

I never would have thought that the 'shroom would have attempted to eat the shrimp, but I happened to be right by the tank when it happened (thankfully, for the shrimp's sake.)
 
i can see the whole mushroom thing, beacuse i have some mushrooms that close up like that when they are fed. pretty cool mushrooms but i could see them possibly doing that to something that wonders across them :lol: too bad you didnt get a picture of that before you saved the shrimp!
 
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