Long spine urchin questions

[davocean]

OK, so I'm trying to get rid of blue clove polyps that have overgrown in my tank.
Someone on here said a long spine urchin would eat them.
Anyone have any exp or thoughts on this and is there any kind of drawback to them?
Are they reef safe, other than eating the cloves, and do they really eat them?

 

[mscarpena]

Scrub the cloves off the rock or cover them with something. I would not think a long spine urchin is the solution.

 

[N8thanExpl0sion]

Urchin usually munches on the Coraline. If there is a lot of Coraline about then it may never be interested in anythign else.

+1 on the scrub suggestion

 

[olemiss reb]

My longspine urchin ate them. There were clear cut paths where the urchin went through them. The drawback was that my fimby was constantly swimming into it and getting "poked". After removing the urchin the polyps came right back.
Are these the polyps

 

[davocean]

^^ That would be them, yep.
Wish I never accepted those things.
I heard later they could be invasive and overgrow, but I thought it would be more like GSP or zenia, not free floating all over the tank like this.

 

[Elysia]

Give the polyps away in exchange for new live rock. Those things are sold for $ an inch at frag swaps... And not everyone has success with them.

 

[davocean]

Well, the thing is I got some really good rock that is pretty established, and my pillers are all drilled w/ acrylic rods, and came out pretty much how I wanted.
After all that work, I sure don't want to start all over, especially since my nem has stayed put, and clowns are spawning, I just don't want to disrupt my whole system.
On a plus, the long spine I picked up is eating them, and also I tried scrubbing them and I'm surprised they aren't TOO difficult to remove, just very messy.
I hope scrubbing them off doesn't make any kind of toxins or anything, but I'll only do one small area at a time, and before WC's.