Which Urchin? Pin Cushion or Black Spiny

d2mini

d2mini

Reef enthusiast
Best algae eater and overall best for a reef tank?
Right now I have a Pencil Urchin but thinking of trading him in tomorrow. I know one LFS has the Tuxedo (pin cushion) in stock.
I heard the Tuxedos are less clumsy around corals?
 
Get a rock boring urchin.I have had one almost since I started reef keeping and it never has knocked anything down. They stay on the small side too. They come in black or purple and have bright white rings around the base of the spines. Great all around urchin.
 
i have a long spine but you have to watch for there spines when cleaning the tank or you will get one or more in the hand and it hurts
 
I have heard that pin cushion are poisonous...but that's what my LFS said.

From WWM:
Mespilia globulus (Linnaeus 1758), the Blue Tuxedo Urchin (Sphere Urchin of science). Eastern Indian Ocean to western Pacific... in shallows amongst algae it grazes on. To three inches in diameter. Needs hard substrates, shady areas. Can be kept solitarily or in small groups. Eats mainly algae, including corallines.
 
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I have a tuxuedo urchin and a longspine in the 180. the longspine runs laps around the tuxuedo urchin. by far superior in algae grazing.
 
Cool, thanks guys!

I just got back from the LFS with a long black spine urchin and he has cool white rings on his spines. Drip acclimating now.
 
Oh no, I was just going to say not to get that kind. They are nightmares! :mrgreen:
Okay just kidding. Why don't we have pictures yet. Especially from the pro! Get that camera out!
 
Hey man, i got one of him in his bag, acclimating to temp (after drip acclimating for 2.5 hrs) but my main computer is repairing permissions at the moment. About to go drop the new guy in the water... hopefully i return with no more holes in my fingers than i have now.
 
He's going in your 46g? They grow so fast you will probably be moving him out in less then a year :) and he will love to eat all of your coralline algae.

When you trade him in when he gets to big I would go with the tuxedo, they don't get as big.

and now Pictures :)
 
winyfrog said:
He's going in your 46g? They grow so fast you will probably be moving him out in less then a year :) and he will love to eat all of your coralline algae.

When you trade him in when he gets to big I would go with the tuxedo, they don't get as big.

and now Pictures :)
Click to expand...

Everything will be transferred to the new 130-ish gallon. :bounce:


If i ever get it! :grumble:
 
Someday..... :)

I have a long spine urchin in one of my clients tanks and it is the size of a basketball maybe a bit bigger. :)

Pictures..........
 
Yeesh! Patience, people! lol :D

Ok, here ya go.
And of course I drop him in and he lands right on my zoas.

654389428_xJmLw-O.jpg


654389486_B7fp3-O.jpg
 
looks a lot like mine. except much smaller. my longspine is about 12 inches from tip to tip at its largest spot. its crazy, maybe slightly smaller than that, but not likely. I would show you a picture but my hard drive crashed on my photo pc and need to try to recover everything off of it :x: best of luck. mine can not keep up with coralline and goes for hair primarily anyways. it will scrape rock completely clean like you cant believe.
 

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