reef safe urchin s

[chewieee]

what are the best reef safe urchins to have?

 

[t11t5]

I stayed away from them cause they tend to be a bulldozer. They knock everything over if its not securely mounted.

 

[plateboy3293]

Blue Tuxedo are best for a peaceful tank. Long Spined is better for more agressive or peaceful tanks. Yes they are bulldozer if you don't glue the coral down.

 

[EllieSuz]

The Tuxedo is a hoot. They carry around shells and mine even has a nice Zoa frag he carries around that is flourishing. You do have to glue stuff down, but he's worth it. They eat Coralline algae however, so you should wait until your tank is mature and producing plenty of Coralline.

 

[phurst]

I have a tuxedo as well. He is very cool to watch wander around the tank, and hasn't caused any problems, or knocked anyting over.

 

[returnofsid]

I would say Tuxedo as well. Although they do pick up coral frags as they wander and stick them to themselves...lol. Then you just have roaming coral frags. The only thing I would caution against is if you have an acrylic tank.

 

[down and outman]

Good cleaner, excellent way to get rid of nusiance algae in newer tanks. Cool to look at and great conversation critter. Kids love them. But, it had my new pulsing xenia in his mouth hanging 3/4 of the way up the glass, just chowing down. I gave him away after that.

 

[downhillbiker]

i have a long spine and they are absolutely gorgeous. people dont realize how much color they have. look up some close up pics online. the only thing is you MUST glue down everything. i dont have mine glued right now because i am slowly acclimating and moving the frags closer and closer to the light, and every once in a while he knocks one over, i know its a he, because it has the white spines along with the black ones.

 

[victor_c3]

Blue tuxedo here as well. I've heard that the black-spine (long-spine) urchins can grow up to the size of a softball or a basketball whereas a tuxedo urchin will grow to be about 3" across.

My tuxedo urchin constantly ends up picking up my snails and my hermit crabs. I have to rescue them all the time. But it is definately worth keeping.

 

[downhillbiker]

yeah my long spine is about 8" and growing.

 

[bj32482]

I have had a pencil urchin in my reef for over a year...no problems...

 

[downhillbiker]

ive heard pencils are VERY VERY BAD. i would only go with a tux or long spine these are the only 2 truly reef safe urchins and they still eat coralline.

 

[bj32482]

pencil...never bothers anything...
Where did you hear that they are bad?

 

[akela]

I have tuxedo for 3 years, no problems so far.

 

[downhillbiker]

Some Pencil species, such as the Caribbean species Eucidaris tribuloides, are meat-eating animals, says Ronald Shimek in his There's No Reason To Be Spineless article. He states that, "Before I found this out in my own system, I watched a Pencil Urchin (Eucidaris tribuloides) catch and eat a scarlet cleaner shrimp".

This is from one of several sites, along with my LFS, that say that pencil urchins will catch shrimp and small fish while they are sleeping and eat them.

 

[BLKTANG]

A friend of mine has a 210g,90%SPS,& one nite his Longspine Urchin took a taste of his 10" Blue Milipora Colony,& ate almost half of the colony by the time he noticed it in the morning.

 

[downhillbiker]

ouch...i will keep an eye on mine. it doesnt seem to touch corals, but does like to eat coralline, but not at a rate that cant be replenished. if that thing eats any corals, it will be time to eat some urchin for dinner.

 

[bj32482]

thats odd, mine is from the Caribbean too,