Long Spine Urchin spews milky white?

[ckoral]

So I thought I would put my long spine urchin in my fuge to clean some mat algea off the wall and because he is simply getting to big for my 65 gallon, besides he would be best in my 100g stock tank fuge. It is fairly crowded in my tank, so I was trying to move the urchin up to the top of my cap's near the surface. I simply nudged him near his bottom spines to encourage him to rise up to the surface.

I got him right about where I wanted him, He then suddenly spewed out milky white substance. I am sure this is a defense mechanism (please don't tell PETA that I was tormenting him with the back side of my fish net).

How toxic is this to 100 gallons of total water volume?

I have SPS LPS and a few softies w/ 150LBS live rock and 8" sand bed in my stock tank if that helps.

This stuff always happens right before I go to bed when I already stayed up too late.


If I had more time, I'm sure there is a nice write up on this somewhere. If you know of one, please link me

 

[Eldredge]

I don't know if it is a defense mechanism. Mine does that from time to time - seems to happen more after a water change. It doesn't have any negative effects as far as I can see. I was worried the first time, and posted the same question. Noone was concerned about it. I think it may actually be spawning. Good luck.

 

[ckoral]

oh great. That means my probing of it with my fish net was a turn on.