Had hair algae issue in my tank so I got a pincushion urchin. There's plenty of easy algae for it to pick on yet all he's eating is the coraline algae off of rocks and my tank is vastly losing colors. All these positive reports I hear about how great of algae eaters they are, I thought it was about nuisance algae all this time. What to do?:sad2:
I hate my pincushion urchin!
- Thread starter babyduke
- Start date
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
You didn't buy the right urchin.
Black longspine is what you want. Tuxedo will do nothing but decorate themselves. Pincushions I'm not too sure about but I never heard of the other urchins bar pencil bothering coraline.. it'll grow back soon enough anyway. Rather look at no HA and little coraline or HA covering it all?
And there are better canidates for algea control reguardless anyway; emerald crabs, sea hares, and the legendary toothbrush to name a few.
Also keep your phosphates, silicates, and nitrates at minimum at all cost as it'll just help the algea grow back.. and your test kits will read 0 because it's being soaked up. Keeping high magnesium will also slow it's growth a little.
Black longspine is what you want. Tuxedo will do nothing but decorate themselves. Pincushions I'm not too sure about but I never heard of the other urchins bar pencil bothering coraline.. it'll grow back soon enough anyway. Rather look at no HA and little coraline or HA covering it all?
And there are better canidates for algea control reguardless anyway; emerald crabs, sea hares, and the legendary toothbrush to name a few.
Also keep your phosphates, silicates, and nitrates at minimum at all cost as it'll just help the algea grow back.. and your test kits will read 0 because it's being soaked up. Keeping high magnesium will also slow it's growth a little.
I said in another thread people shouldn't get pincushion urchins, but you said they were fine. Now you're saying they're bad?
And yes longspines get huge! Max length is like 15 inches!
I did??? I don't recall. I've searched my posts too and can't find it.
I'm not sure what in Calappidae's post you think is him calling them bad? All he is saying is that the wrong urchin was bought to control algae.
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
Which thread was that?
Pencils eat coraline and can knock things over with their bulk.
Pincushion urchins I never heard of attacking coraline, but they're not particularly the best urchin for CUC.
Black longspine get big, are a little venomous (if alergic), and do eat algea very well. I believe the same for fire urchin but I'd second op those.. definitly more venomous I know. Niether of these will knock over rock, they're too fragile and will break their spines first.
Tuxedo, kinda the same as pincushion.. they both are "decorator urchins" and will wear lose frags and such like a decorator crab almost. (When I had bryopsis.. my tuxedo had a 10in tall wig!:mixed
however these ones I think stay smaller and I personally never had a problem with, right now he's giving my hermit crabs a piggy back ride! Halloween urchins same as pincushion. Other than that urchins are pretty harmless in reef tanks bar pencil which are just coraline loving bulldozers.
If emeralds aren't touching it either.. it's possible you got satan's hair algae a.k.a. bryopsis.. nothing eats it. I managed to beat it by scrubbing all the rock with a toothbrush and raising magnesium.. it's frustrating.. but never grew back!
Sorry there was confusion there. It wasn't you. It was callapidae
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
I'm still confused as to what is going on? I repeat the same info I posted earlier in all the urchin threads I'm associated with.
Did you want to get a pincushion? By all means go for it, they will pick up lose frags and rubble but they're harmless IMO.. I still am a little iffy about this coraline eating problem but I don't know for sure how pincushion and coraline mix.. according to this person's experience I'm afraid it's a risk to some degree.
And when I say they'll pick up lose frags and rubble, I don't mean it's going to just rip out all your zoanthids like a nonreef safe animal.. it's kinda like a decorator crab where anything that's lose will be used for camo whether it's crushed coral, frag plug, snails (lol), etc.
They're more a riot then anything. You'd be surprise how entertainingly silly a ball of spines could be. Just never add one in an acrylic tank.. urchins and acrylic in general do not mix well..
It will however eat chaeto. And rearrange the tank whether I like it or not. It now shares space in my predator tank. 
ViktorVaughn
Member
I had a pink pincushion urchin with the same coralline eating habits. Before I bought him I did a quick 2 minute search and found that like calappidae said, longspines (diadema setosum) are where its at for algae control. I bought my urchin solely for viewing pleasure and some laughs, both of which he delivered in spades.
Sea hares are absolute beasts at eating certain algae. My tank was plagued with some nasty GHA among other species. I started running GFO, cut back a bit on feedings, and added the Sea Hare. It completely obliterated all algae in my 40 gallon tank within a few weeks. In that time, phosphates were reduced from .25 ppm all the way down to undectable levels. My algae has yet to return 4 months or so later.
Sea hares are absolute beasts at eating certain algae. My tank was plagued with some nasty GHA among other species. I started running GFO, cut back a bit on feedings, and added the Sea Hare. It completely obliterated all algae in my 40 gallon tank within a few weeks. In that time, phosphates were reduced from .25 ppm all the way down to undectable levels. My algae has yet to return 4 months or so later.
lostintheocean
New member
they eat different algae but will eat Coraline, mu current pincushion devours Coraline
jasonandsarah
New member
Yeah my ora purple pin cushion urchin is just hilarious running around with 80$ frags on it's head! :wildone:
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