Tuxedo urchin

[kaybee]

Pics of a recent addition to the tank:

Really tiny one. Most of the ones I see are about ping pong ball-sized. This one is currently about the size of a grape:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater2009/tux1.jpg

Adjacent to a red blastomussa wellsi (and asterina star at the far right). Like certain other urchins, the tuxedo urchin seems prone to picking up 'debris'.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater2009/tux2.jpg

[Dave66]

Nifty shows, Kaybee. He'll spend his evenings decimating the algae in your tank, if you have any.

Dave

[rageybug]

Very cool... give it a week and it will look like a Katamari!

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Very nice specimen Kaybee. Urchins are one of the critters I've not really bothered to read up on much, what kind of algae does these guys eat?

[kaybee]

Depending on the species urchins can consume various types of algae, including nuisance algae. However, the tuxedo sea urchin happens to like coraline algae. I've got enough of that to sustain it indefinately. Saves me the trouble of constantly scraping it off, though I got the urchin to add some diversity to the tank.

I used to have a rock-boring sea urchin (it had hitch-hiked in among some live rock, and was about the size of a plain m&m candy when I discovered it). When it got larger it could clear perhaps the area of a half a postage stamp worth of coraline daily.

I removed it when it got larger than a ping pong ball because it was toppling over fairly large corals. Hopefully this one doesn't end up doing the same, but he doesn't have the same type of spines that the previous one did:

Rock Borer
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/u2-1.jpg

[cocoa_pleco]

Very nice specimen Kaybee. Urchins are one of the critters I've not really bothered to read up on much, what kind of algae does these guys eat?

yep, kaybee is right, some eat coraline. my 125g has little coraline, he just munches it all away

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

I knew some at coralline but I wasn't sure which ones. Guess that means no Tux for me. Maybe I'll look into the Long Spinny ones. :)

[cocoa_pleco]

the spiny ones are one of the coolest looking

[rageybug]

I knew some at coralline but I wasn't sure which ones. Guess that means no Tux for me. Maybe I'll look into the Long Spinny ones. :)


Just watch out for fallng live rock. They are a very cool addition to the tank but can topple things over pretty easily.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Thanks for the heads up rageybug. I don't think it could topple mine though, I used epoxy. LOL

BTW, I talked to a guy at my LFS, and they have a long spiny in their 240gal display tank, and the only algae it eats is coralline. Scratch that idea as well.

[rageybug]

The epoxy would solve any troubles with rock slides.

[troy]

Cool addition.

[kaybee]

Very cool... give it a week and it will look like a Katamari!

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater2009/urchingearedup.jpg

They pic up stuff to utilize as 'camouflage' against sightless predators.