urchins

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I have some questions about urchins. The reason is i bought a cleaner crew and it includes 2 urchins. Any information will be greatly appreciated.

 

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To start how should i handle them. I know some are venomous. How many can be kept in one tank. I just need to know if i would just have to rehome them.

 

[chichimom79]

All I know about urchins is that they will pick up little frags, shells, etc, and carry them around for camo. I left them out of my CuC for that reason. My snails move things around enough as it is.
FishyReef had one of her urchins go rogue and start munching on a really nice piece of LPS, and that urchin went into a ten gallon urchin jail tank lol
A lot of people keep them and love them. Im just afraid of them. :)

 

[dixiegirl21191]

I personally love my pincushion urchin. Yeah it grabs frags every once in a while but I just pull them off and put them back. If you don't want it to pick corals up, epoxy them down. I put a bunch of little shells in the tank for it to carry around. I think its a crap shoot just like everything else we put in our tanks. It could be a model citizen like mine (knock on wood) or it could be a little terror. I definitely wouldn't put more than one in a 20 gal though. Just my opinion. They do get big though, mine will eventually get moved to my 36. Its only about 2 inches in diameter right now.

 

[FishyReef]

I think it really depends on what type of urchin you have - most are reef safe but some species are "with caution" and might eat coral (mine did). Some species will stay pretty small and do okay in smaller tanks (for example, the tuxedos), others will get quite large (for example, I wouldn't put a long-spine urchin in a small tank, and my coral-munching short-spine pincushion was large enough that it occasionally got stuck between the rocks in my nano tank). Do you know which types came with your clean up crew? Knowing that will help us point you in the right direction.

 

[MitchReef]

Aren't they usually clumsy little bulldozers????

 

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Purple Pencil Urchin,Purple Spiny Urchin I am getting them from finaddictsaltwaterfish.com if you look here Fin Addict Clean Up Crew Saltwater Mixed Reef Pack | eBay this will show what i am getting shipped to me.

 

[FishyReef]

Based on the picture, the purple spiny urchin looks a lot like the pinchusion urchins and should be reef safe. I'd give it some shells to carry around, otherwise it will probably tote around coral frags or snails, but is a great cleaner. Here's more info: Saltwater Aquarium Invertebrates for Marine Aquariums: Pincushion Urchin

The pencil urchin is a different story: Saltwater Aquarium Inverts for Marine Reef Aquariums: Pencil Urchin According to live aquaria they are not reef safe and may eat coral. I suspect they are a great in terms of cleaners, but if you plan to have lots of coral then you may need to trade it in to your LFS at some point. I started with 3 urchins. One went rogue and ended up in a 10g urchin jail, then ultimately got traded in to my LFS when it kept getting stuck in the rocks in the nano tank; the second large pincushion urchin just kept knocking everything over and I eventually decided to trade it in as well. I still have the third urchin, a red tuxedo urchin. I don't have any experience with the pencil urchins, but I would just keep an eye on things once you add it to your tank. If you are planning to have a lot of corals (particularly flat corals that might not be able to defend themselves), then I would just keep an eye on things and if it starts eating corals then go ahead and trade it in.

Hope this helps!

 

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Ok well I may just trade them off After they clean my tank

 

[rrbigdog]

I saw that listing also and I would like to know how they do. Can you update after you have them awhile? My tank is almost completely cycled and have been looking at different sites for CUC.

Thanks

 

[fastrd400]

I have a tuxedo urchin, he is awesome. He will clean and clean. Though every now and then, he does end up with frags stuck to him.

 

[tra_w]

i should have them tomorrow. I hope they are all doing good but if i have any doa it is covered for 15 days

 

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now as far as how good they are i have read many reviews on them and i havent come across anything bad so far. They seem to ship quickly the only reason mine didnt is cause i got it on the weekend so they shipped out monday.

 

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well didnt come today maybe tomorrow i hope cause its getting to be a little long now

 

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Well got my inserts in today the star and crabs made it but the urchins didn't but that was due to the uses cause they damaged the package however the guy from where i ordered them from is more than polite and is refunding the price of the urchins anyway. I will now always order from him.

 

[tra_w]

Well got my inverts in today the star and crabs made it but the urchins didn't but that was due to the USPS cause they damaged the package however the guy from where i ordered them from is more than polite and is refunding the price of the urchins anyway. I will now always order from him.

 

[reefnoob]

Cool. How about some pics? And where did you order from?

 

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This is where i ordered from. Fin-Addict Aquatic Collections