White sea urchin info required

TankCla

SPSychology
Do you have experience with white short spine sea urchins?
Are they easy to keep? Any special care? What should I look for when I go and pick it up? Diseases?
Have no experience with sea urchins and I would like to have one.

The urchin will be kept in 75g tank.
Actual photo of the sea urchin in a fellow aquarist sump
k0je.jpg


Thank you!
Claud
 
that's gorgeous! i have a tuxedo urchin in my 29g cube and i love him. keeps the glass/rocks clean and he's always on the move.
 
I use to have a very similar urchin. Easy to take care of just acclimate them slowly and it should live for a long time for you.
 
Looks like Lytechinus variegatus. I've got one and I love him! Aren't those long tube feet cool?

He'll definitely move stuff around. He'll also eat massive amounts of coraline. If you have an acrylic tank and leave coraline on it, he'll scratch the walls eating it.
 
Looks like Lytechinus variegatus. I've got one and I love him! Aren't those long tube feet cool?

He'll definitely move stuff around. He'll also eat massive amounts of coraline. If you have an acrylic tank and leave coraline on it, he'll scratch the walls eating it.

I have a 75g glass. I don't think he will be able to scratch the glass, right?
About the coraline, I am not so happy. I am just starting the 75g and I want that coraline.

Oh, btw, is it ok if I put him in a new setup? Does he require a well established tank, like mandarins?

Thank you!
Claud
 
Your glass is safe. He should do fine in a new tank. If it doesn't seem like there's enough algae for him, you might want to give him some nori every once in a while.
 
mine has been in my tank for several months. i do rubber band small pieces (1/2"x1/2" or so) to a small piece of rock and put it on the sand bed. if the urchin finds it (which it usually does), it stays there till it's completely gone.

he should be fine in your tank.
 
The little guy is in the tank, but now he is making some white clouds from the top. Is it normal?
Tried to get a better pic, but no luck.
utamedyz.jpg
 
Hi TankCla,
Enjoy this little guy. I'm glad it has already stopped biting on your rock. Just feed him with seaweed. You will love him.
Joe
 
Thanks Joe. He is awesome. Right now I am trying to understand what is doing on in my tank.
He is not making white stuff anymore. I am looking at him now, building him self a house from pieces of broken shells. He is so much fun.
 
Thank you Sabina!
Now, he is ok. He is all over the tank, with all the spines.
I think is only stress, but usually marine creatures, with every stress related fluid, release some poison too.
You saw the clam after the little guy stopped, and half of my corals were closed.
So far nothing died. I am happy he is ok.

Last night he was decorating with a small frag of zoas. Do I have to give him broken clam shells for "construction" purposes? :P
 
Whatever was, now he is alive and well. And all my live stock. :P
He grabbed some frags, and I had to relocate them in the tank. Now he is behaving, but not eating the algae from glass.
 
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