buckeyegirl
New member
He's been so well behaved until now...he stripped a rock of about 10 of them.
Pencil sea urchin now looking for a good home
Pencil sea urchin now looking for a good home
Urchin ate some zoas
- Thread starter buckeyegirl
- Start date
buckeyegirl, thanks for sharing that, I've never heard of such a thing.
Did you by chance actually see the urchin eating the polyps?
If so, how fast did the urchin mow them down?
Did the urchin leave and return to finish off the colony, or did it stay there and consume them all at once?
How big was the body of the urchin?
Do you have pic of it by chance?
Thanks, Mucho Reef
Did you by chance actually see the urchin eating the polyps?
If so, how fast did the urchin mow them down?
Did the urchin leave and return to finish off the colony, or did it stay there and consume them all at once?
How big was the body of the urchin?
Do you have pic of it by chance?
Thanks, Mucho Reef
Skeptic_07
New member
are you sure it didnt just move them? I've heard of urchins picking up frags and moving them.
I was thinking the same thing, but the OP said, "he stripped a rock of about 10 of them"
Mucho
Mucho
buckeyegirl
New member
When I first noticed that the urchin was on top of the zoas, they were closed up, and I thought they were just upset that he was on top of them. He stayed there for about 48 hours, moving around just on the square inch or so where the polyps were. I could see that they were disappearing but I couldn't pry him off the rock! When they were gone, he moved on and the rock is completely bare. You can't even tell that they were ever there. The urchin is maybe 1" around, not counting the spines. I'll take his picture tonight.
glee
Premium Member
i had 2 nano pencil urchins in my 30 gallon reef and they never ate any of my zoas or corals. they grazed on algae and coraline. they got bigger (about 3" diameter), so i moved them into my 100 gallon zoanthid dominated reef. they have always been well behaved except occasionally knocking over a colony that wasn't glued to my rock work.
these pencil urchins do not pick up or cover themselves. i have had mine for approximately 2 years and these are strictly from my own experience in keeping them. good luck!
these pencil urchins do not pick up or cover themselves. i have had mine for approximately 2 years and these are strictly from my own experience in keeping them. good luck!
I had a pencil urchin take out my oldest zoa colony. It took him less than two weeks to take out a colony that was a year old. He easily ate 25 to 30 polyps. It would only eat them at night. I never saw him on my zoas but I begin to notice that every morning he was in the shadows behind the colony. It took me so long to realize it was him because I was told that he was completely reef safe and I since I never saw him on the colony I just never gave it a thought until I was talking to the owner of a LFS and he told me pencil urchins are notorious for turning against a reef. The little guy is now happily in my sump and he left about ten polyps to restart my colony.
