Urchin trying to reproduce?

[falesdk]

My longspine black urchin has been releasing what I think must be eggs or sperm into the water. It used to do this every two weeks on the dot (its been doing this for several months) But for the past week or so hes been doing it every day. It seems to do this immediately after I start cleaning the glass, and I was wondering if this could be because of te extra sediment in the water? Or is this just a coincidence and its normal for urchins to do this.

I've been assuming that this wont hurt anything in the tank, ammonia, nitrate an nitrite all stay at 0 consistently.

Any thoughts appreciated!

 

[woogy]

hes doin a #2

 

[Toddrtrex]

Many many years ago I had unchins in my tank, and they would do the same thing. For me it seemed to match up when I did water changes, nothing bad ever came from it.

 

[falesdk]

No, thats more of a pellet like excretion, this is clear/white liquid, and it comes from a different place. He didnt start this until I had him for 2 years or so, so dont tell me hes peeing either.

 

[falesdk]

Well, and I was wondering too if this was like a seasonal peak period, or is it caused by the extra sediment in the tank.

 

[zack1a]

"The more mature red sea urchins, in fact, appear to be the most prolific producers of sperm and eggs, and are perfectly capable of breeding even when incredibly old. There is no sea urchin version of menopause." -ScienceDaily.com

This is what I found maybe it will help. I don't have my A research game going on right now but I may look a bit more later.

 

[falesdk]

Well thats more than Ive been able to come up with. I'm hopin someone on here has bred urchins, but with the lack of info it seems iffy.