Urchin troubles

[hharren]

So my new urchin is loosing spines like crazy. He eats half a sheet of seaweed a day and the water all tested perfect. I need help from more experienced aquaria enthusiasts.

Thanks.

 

[hharren]

And sorry about the sideways pic. Apparently my phone decided to be special.

 

[Calappidae]

When they lose spines it's a sign of stress from bad water quality or the like.

Make sure you have no traces of copper and get your water tested by an LFS as a double checker if your test kit is going bad.

 

[Betta132]

Get your water tested by a reliable source and give us the exact details.
Definitely stress. Could anything be picking at him? Can you put him in a QT tank to see if that's the trouble?

 

[Fredericks]

I would test for copper and make sure the didnt go through a temperature variation recently.

 

[hharren]

My pH was 8.2. Salinity 1.025. Amonia 0. Nitrates and nitrites both 0. Calcium was ideal. LFS confirmed what my kit had already told me. Don't have another tank setup for quarantine but the lfs did recommend some stress reliever liquid. Been using that a few days and he seems to be clinging to life. He just only has half the spines he had when I got him. Any other suggestions?

 

[hharren]

Also the heaters both indicate approx 79 degrees. The thermometers verify that is accurate to plus or minus a degree. Also the lfs didn't mention anything about copper. The head of aquatics didn't even have any suggestions besides the stress reliever liquid. It's called stress Guard and it's made by seachem.

 

[Betta132]

Pretty sure that stuff is supposed to help replace the slime coat on a stressed fish. Not certain of the purpose. However, I do know it's designed for fish.
Check the nori. Is it anything other than just nori?
Check for copper. That's an invert killer in general.

 

[hharren]

Don't have any copper in the water. My other inverts are fine. Sorry I'm still new to the hobby and learning, what is nori? I'm sure its something simple that eludes me right now. Long night on call last night.:headwallblue:

 

[Calappidae]

Nori is sea weed, that stuff you put on a vegi clip for herbivores like tangs.

 

[hharren]

I did some looking at my sea weed package and found almost no information about it. It's the omega one super green seaweed. That's just about all the info it gives. Doesn't tell me the makeup or anyanything. He seems to be doing better the last day or so though. Hopefully hes on the mend and will start to regain some spines eventually. I'm beginning to think the lfs didn't acclimate him properly before I bought him that afternoon. They float their stuff for 20 minutes or so and then just dump it in the tank. Sad but that's the best fish store I have close by. The next closest is 100+ miles away.

 

[Calappidae]

Generally that's actually the best method to acclimate. (Leaving them in the same water, ammonia becomes more toxic when the bag opens and Ph swings, yada yada yada.)

He'll grow his spines if he's healthy. Only time will tell.