purple pincushin urchin prob

[bracebldrs]

in upgrading my cleanup crew, to battle mild hair alge
i bought an urchin, a sand sifting star etc.its been 4weeks now
and the urchin is lossing spines slowly .its activity its normal
actualy i noticed that the clear tenticles are in greater numbers and longer .the spines have been falling of this past week and1/2
now there just on its footing .anywhoo, does this sound like its dying?do they grow new?on another note i would like to add
that this thing is a cleaning machine .when i set it on sand it
left a white path in its wake.however ,once it found coraline on rock it was turning my purple rock into white spoted.granted
my corraline growth is good in my tank ,the tank cant keep up with
the pincushin.ps. others recomended the tuxedo urchin. at the
i couldnt find .are those better?

 

[Grey Reefer]

I've had a pin cushin urchin(Lytechinus vaniegatus) before. What are your water parameters? Does the urchin have plenty of food to munch on? These guys prefer macro algaes to coraline. If there is not alot of macro algae in the tank you need to feed it some nori seaweed or something. Urchins are algae munching machines, the pincushin I bought from the LFS had all his spines drooping and quite a few had fallen out. As soon as I put him in my macro infested tank he immediately perked up and was happy as could be knocking down every coral I own in his path and eating almost all my marco. Urchins do lose a few spines here and there, but if he is losing alot that is not a good sign. Tuxedo urchins are a good choice for reef tanks too, but they tend to munch coraline more.

 

[bracebldrs]

hey thanks for input ,i think ill toss it in my sump and keep
an eye on it.