What is this black worm that caught a ride on my Tuxedo Urchin

Drix

Premium Member
Spotted this guy on my new urchin last night and when I tried to blow him off he ran and hid in the spines. Early this morning I saw him again on my urchin who was sitting right next to the glass. When I grabbed a flashlight for a close look it walked towards the light and ended up on the glass where I could get at it.

Any ideas on what he is?

https://i.imgur.com/ZMJC85U.jpg
 
Picture is not very clear, because the vial magnifies it but looks like a flatworm.

Yeah, I don't have a way of getting a great picture, he's not big- maybe 2/10th's of an inch (4-5mm?). Its not flat like say, a snail foot, it more crawls like a bristle worm has little appendages along the sides and a segmented body.
 
Yeah, I don't have a way of getting a great picture, he's not big- maybe 2/10th's of an inch (4-5mm?). Its not flat like say, a snail foot, it more crawls like a bristle worm has little appendages along the sides and a segmented body.

Sounds like a chiton
 
Tuxedo didn't make it, found it dead this AM. I'm going to guess this particular hitchhiker was a sign of impending doom, I drip acclimated this guy for a significant period of time and can't say any of my tank specs were out of whack.

Tested today:
PH: 8.4
Temp: 77
Magnesium: 1300
Calcium: 360
Dkh: 12
Phosphate + Nitrate were 0 last night. Haven't re-checked since the death.
 
Not that these were the cause of your urchins death but your cal is a bit low and alk is high..
That could just be typical for your salt mix but usually they tend to all trail together in that if a salt mixes alk is high cal will be too..

Ideal ranges here in case you haven't seen/read it..
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php


I'm not sure if urchins are effected by changes in alk but it certainly could be..
Did you drip acclimate it or anything
 
Not that these were the cause of your urchins death but your cal is a bit low and alk is high..
That could just be typical for your salt mix but usually they tend to all trail together in that if a salt mixes alk is high cal will be too..

Ideal ranges here in case you haven't seen/read it..
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php


I'm not sure if urchins are effected by changes in alk but it certainly could be..
Did you drip acclimate it or anything

I dripped him probably for about 5-6 hours. I'll have to look into the alkalinity thing and whether they can get alk shock. I've been using IO, my alkalinity kind of perplexed me too this afternoon. I'm going to retest tonight, I dosed magnesium the other day for the first time and it seems to have thrown off my stability a little bit.
 
Urchins can be tough too. I once got one as a hitch hiker. It came with some live rock. 3 days in wet newspapers travel time. I soaked the rock in brutes with salt water in my garage. No heater and I didnt monitor salinity just put in RO water when the water dropped below the rock. After placing it in my tank he appeared.
 
Why did you acclimate for 5-6 hours? Should be no more than an hour.

Back to back conference calls for work. As this guy came from the LFS I wasn't too concerned with "death in the bag" that you might get from mail order.
 
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