Urchin
- Thread starter Ralphy
- Start date
Actually urchins will eat coral..
I was told that they ate algae. Perhaps if a urchin was starving it may resort to coral?
I don't think that they eat healthy coral.; there isn't anything I've found or observed to suggest they do. If someone has a link to information to the contrary ;it would be helpful. They do,however irritate croal ;the spines may pierce coral flesh creating an infection site and they are notorious bulldozers;oviously , corals don't do well when knocked about. I've have seen them perched on coral, perhaps feeding on zooxanthellae and other excesses the coral expels from time to time. I've seen corals suffer from this activity.
They do eat coraline algae ;coraline is generally beneficial to corals and reef building since it is calcareous and forms calcium carbonate for skeletal mass; like corals do. Coraline cover also wards off some nuisance algae as it competes for nutrients and provides a surface less suited to invasion by hair algae, etc.
They do eat coraline algae ;coraline is generally beneficial to corals and reef building since it is calcareous and forms calcium carbonate for skeletal mass; like corals do. Coraline cover also wards off some nuisance algae as it competes for nutrients and provides a surface less suited to invasion by hair algae, etc.
Hey Tom,
I wish I had bookmarked it. I just read on a thread maybe two or three days ago.. there were several individuals with predominantly SPS tanks who witnessed a couple different types of urchins not only eating through the encrusting portion of their SPS, but the tips on occasion as well.
Its not the first I have heard of this, and I certainly wouldn't risk it.
Fallling
New member
Depends on the type of urchin. Pencil urchins, for example, are definitely omnivore and generally aren't considered reef safe as they'll eat just about anything they get a taste for. However, many urchins are herbivores and are great for algae. They will eat coralline algae, so if you have a small tank or not much live rock, keep that mind.
I ended up with 4 rock borrowing urchins as hitchhikers on live rock and have moved 3 into the fuge from the DT because 4 of them were making too much an impact on the coralline in the DT. I supplement the urchins in the fuge with nori. The urchin in the DT will bulldoze through zoa colonies, but once he is out, they'll open back up. Generally any coral that he is moving around will close up while he's there.
I'd double check your water parameters first to make sure nothing else is going on that's causing the zoas to be grumpy.
I ended up with 4 rock borrowing urchins as hitchhikers on live rock and have moved 3 into the fuge from the DT because 4 of them were making too much an impact on the coralline in the DT. I supplement the urchins in the fuge with nori. The urchin in the DT will bulldoze through zoa colonies, but once he is out, they'll open back up. Generally any coral that he is moving around will close up while he's there.
I'd double check your water parameters first to make sure nothing else is going on that's causing the zoas to be grumpy.
