First urchin question

[thommyboy12183]

My daighter wanted a sea urchin so we got a blue tuxedo urchin. It is my first urchin and i was curious what this is attached to it. It is like purple sheets with green strings coming out see picture below.

 

[badbreath]

Is that how you bought it?

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[thommyboy12183]

Yes, bought it with that on it but the green string were not sticking out and visable. I tried googling but dont even know what to ask sea urchin with purple and green tentacles didnt show much

 

[Robotic Chimera]

It looks like it's wearing corals(?) as a "hat". They like to pick up things around the tank and wear them for "camouflage". Mine once attempted to wear an entire thermometer for a while, and another one is still wearing a discarded shrimp shedding.

If you google "tuxedo urchin camouflage" you'll see a lot of similar cases of things like shells and rocks, and sometimes corals, being worn like a fancy hat.

This thread is one of my favorite examples.

 

[thommyboy12183]

Thank yourobotic chimera. Great thread and makes sense now. How the tough part is going to be ID'ing his hat has a new addition to my tank also.

 

[thommyboy12183]

I am thinking possibly green star polyps

 

[norfolkgarden]

I am thinking possibly green star polyps

+1

The beautiful purple base and the shorter green tentacles.

Our long tentacle GSP has a more dull tannish purple base but the tentacles wave in the current nicely.

The Tuxedo made drop it somewhere you don't want it to adhere to. I got mine to encrust on live rock after a week just by wedging it in a tight space.

Ours is "trapped" at the top of a live rock pinnacle.

If yours starts low in the tank it has a tendency to creep up and over everything, smothering whatever it grows over.
Except maybe Galaxia?
;-)

If it is on a fairly smooth live rock surface you may be able to simply peel it up and remove most of it.

A lot of people start it in the sand bed far away from the rocks and let it oose over that for a while.


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[thommyboy12183]

Ghank youfor the update i will keep an eye out for that so far still kn urchin and all doing good.