Longspine Urchin Help

[Midus]

I just purchased one yesterday. I acclimated it for around 3o to 40 minutes following the guide on liveaquaria.com. Put him in and he instantly moved underneath a rock arch. He got bugged by my emerald crab a bit(Mainly because some food got inbetween its spines....), but since then he's been pretty much by himself.

Today I woke up, turned on the light and saw him pretty much flat against the sand in the same place.

Is this normal behavior?

 

[Bebo77]

they move at night.... so yeah thats normal

 

[Midus]

Alright thanks, you've eased my mind a bit, although it still looks pretty bad IMO.

 

[Bebo77]

i have 3 urchins and 2 actually go back to the same place every morning.. they only way that i know they are alive is by seeing where they scrapped the rock at night..

 

[Midus]

I'm more worried about its lying "flat" and completely limp than its being in the same spot. In the end, i guess that I must have patience. Give it a few days.

 

[Midus]

Update: Its starting to lose its spines and many white spots are appearing across its body(Look to be where the spines came off).

 

[rppvt]

not a good sign- they flatten out by going limp. Going limp means they're dead or dying. sorry for your loss. look for jelly like crap next and a funky stinky tank. scoop him out with all his messiness. change water. mourn.

 

[Midus]

I came to that conclusion myself, but had hope for the best :<

I probably should have done more research. I've just recently found out that they're very sensitive to water changes. I didn't exactly rush the acclimation process, but I could have taken more time with it. A lesson I guess.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Moonstream]

next time, acclimate all inverts to the tank using drip meathod, let this go on for an hour or 2. I used it w/ my shrimp and they were unfased after being placed in their new tank. It is really easy to do too. Get a clean bucket, air line tubing, and dump inverts into buck, make sure to compeltly cover them w/ water. tie a loose not in the tube, and try to make i as near to the part that drips into the tank, suck on the end that will drip into bucket, and wait till you see the water start to flow down. Now tighten the knot, untill it comes out to 1-2 drips per second. after the bucket get 1/2 full remove some water, after 1-2 hours you can place the inverts into the main tank/ QT tank/ were ever they will be going. Be carful not to expose to air if they are nems, or delicte corals, cant hurt not to expose shrimp and crabs to air too. best way to acclimate lol.

 

[Drix]

Urchins in my experience are really hard to acclimate. However, be very sure he's dead before you pull him, I've seen urchin's pull through after loosing near all their spines.

 

[scoobasteve]

Are pencil urchins usually this sensitive? I've had mine going on two years now and he has outlived multiple tank mates, been through two tank crashes and even accidentally spent two days in a bucket of curing live rock--outside--in august--in florida. Iguess this question should be, "how do you kill a pencil urchin?" just kidding, but are pencil urchins just tougher? The only issue i've eveer had with it was that it ate a red serpent star.

 

[Steveabg]

Is he exposed to the light where he is lying? We have an urchin who showed up as a hitchhiker in our tank, and he hides in the same crack in the rock every day. The only time we see him is to check the tank a few hours after lights out. Also, if I shine a flashlight in his hiding spot during the day, he'll move his spines around. They really hate the light.