Sea Urchin Reproduction?

[Hitch08]

I have a number of black sea urchins in my tank. Tonight, I went to check on the tank and noticed it was a bit cloudy. Then, I realized that there were two black sea urchins on top of a bunch of rocks. They were expelling stuff in a white stream, which separated pretty quickly after being expelled. The one was doing it for a while and then the other started. There was a third just sitting there.

Then I noticed the third one started to expel something quite different. It was not white and did not come out in streams like the first two.

I just looked up some videos and saw some of the sea urchins releasing the white streams. Wasn't able to find a video of whatever the other one was doing. :spin2:

Anyway, is there any realistic chance that I'll end up with baby sea urchins?

 

[j_mazzy]

Eggs maybe?

 

[Hitch08]

That was certainly my assumption. It didn't look like what the first two were doing.

Also, I meant to ask if I need to do anything like a water change? It's a 120 gallon tank, but it did make the water a bit cloudy.

 

[eastlake]

I think that the protein skimmer would catch a lot of it, but doing a small water change never hurts. As far as ending up with baby urchins, I have to think that the filtration would end up snagging up most of the eggs and any of the planktonic larvae that hatch out but I'm certainly not an expert so here's to hoping you end up with a bunch of little pin cusions

 

[SeaCucumberFan]

Sea urchins reproduce by sending out sperm and eggs into the water. The eggs look like particles/dust and the sperm are long strings. The skimmer will probably catch it though, but it is possible to get baby urchins. Sell em!

 

[d2mini]

I have video of mine doing that.
Needless to say... I was pretty proud of him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97o2gGmPm9Q

 

[Hitch08]

HA! Yes, Dennis, same thing. I had two of them going like that and then the female started to do her thing.

I was kind of jealous by how long the males continued. Even in my 20's...