Returning the Caretakers to the Reef

[a1amap]

I always thought the long spine urchin looked cool but didn't really know a lot about them. I think I may get one for my tank.

Here are some old articles that were pretty cool. Each issue has multipe topics. I posted some here, there does not seem to be an index to the articles. While some are old they do have a lot of information

Urchin
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2003_issue4.pdf
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2003_issue3.pdf
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2003_issue2.pdf
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2003_issue1.pdf
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2005_issue1.pdf
Has a article about breeding clown fish
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2004_issue1.pdf
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2004_issue2.pdf
Salt
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2004_issue3.pdf
Propagation of Ricordia yuma
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2004_issue4.pdf
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2002_issue1.pdf
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2002_issue2.pdf
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2002_issue3.pdf
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2002_issue4.pdf
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2001_issue1.pdf
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2001_issue2.pdf
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2001_issue3.pdf
http://www.marineland.com/seascope/ss2001_issue4.pdf

 

[kaptken]

Long spine urchins will stick you in the finger, dude, like next time you drop your hand in the tank to pick something up and the wife calls you .... ouch..

hey, i just get error messages on all those links.

 

[a1amap]

Wow since I posted these a few days ago they pulled them off line.

 

[Gordonious]

Al, talk to Tom. He just took his urchin into the store to get rid of it. Has pricked him a ton of times. Most long spines are of the genus diadema.

We learned a bit about them while studying abroad. They are a very important to the ecosystems of the reef and other shallow tropical waterways. There was a mass die off of them a little while back in the Caribbean, killing off the majority of them. Most of them in Bonaire died in one weeks time leaving the benthic zone just about covered with there spines.

Was the biggest draw to you having a safe place for fry to hide?

 

[krikor]

IF you want one... i have one you can have...

=0) see it pays giving people tanks... lol

He is very cool too... has irrideccient blue where his body segments come together... and some white spines as well hes a big guy... id say 6-8" across if he stuck his pins out both sides

(have only pricked my self 2-3 times in the ownage of him)

 

[a1amap]

Found the new link with index
http://www.instantocean.com/sites/InstantOcean/knowledge/newsletter.aspx?id=1298

 

[alemab3]

I had 2 in my tank and they did an awsome job of cleaning mat algae off the rock. the only big draw back was they like coraline algae more then mat algae.