Tuxedo Urchin-Really Reef Friendly?

[tanner86]

I recently about a week ago bought a small tuxedo urchin for my 140gal. He has wreaked havoc in the tank the past 3 days. It has picked up zoas that I have had to take off of him and glue back to a rock. It, this morning, had my queen conch attached to it which is now dead. I would like to keep him, he's cool, but I can't continue to have this going on. If I gave him rock rubble or someting not living to wear would he then stop taking my coral? What do you think about the tuxedo urchin? Would you keep one in your tank?

Please Help?

 

[stanfill reef]

they will continue to pick up items on their back, it is in their nature. If you want an urchin, get a long spine. It will trample over everything (ours was on top our our mushrooms last night) and knock over loose rock, but they don't really cause any lasting damage (the shrooms were just fine when he left).

 

[jmaneyapanda]

and they will eat coralline. I prefer not to have urchins in my tanks for all the above reasons.

 

[wbholwell]

I've also read that they will eat feather dusters and mow over zoas. Not exactly</em> my definition of reef-safe.

 

[kappaknight]

Hrmm, I have a short black spine w/ white tipped urchin. Hasn't mowed over anything that I know of and is really only active at night. Of course, loose rocks do sometimes get rearranged...

 

[george]

wbholwell;51900 wrote: Not exactly</em> my definition of reef-safe.

Agreed. I think many labels of "reef safe" have been used to encourage buying because the organism in question doesn't actively eat or destroy corals.

IMO, indirect damage (knocking over everything, stripping coraline, etc.) is not reef safe. I'd lump Turbo Snails in as "not reef safe" for this reason, but their usefulness for controlling hair algae outweighs the bull-in-a-china-shop effect. At least to a point.

 

[FutureInterest]

Wow I absolutely love my urchin!

Honestly, I think he's one of the coolest inhabitants in my reef. Is yours the royal tuxedo? They have the satin blue stripes and red tinged spikes, I find them to be very pretty creatures... and I obviously love mine . It's funny that you mention the zoa hijacking cause mine is a walking zoa colony. He has some 40+ orange and green zoas that are doing just fine. They're actually spreading all over him, so he looks like a moving colony of zoas! They naturally want a certain amount of coverage so give him lil shells and other things to hold onto and then he won't be trying to attach anything else. I gave him the green colony cause I thoguht they weren't attractive and he hijacked the orange... and soon dropped the other tidbits he was carrying around. Just give him a few shells and other tidbits to carry around and he'll be happy.

I don't have issues with him bulldozing, and I always have a laugh when he tries to tug around a loose frag. I have a huge frag of pom pom xenia on a rock on the sandbed that he once tried to hijack... it was twice his size and just made me laugh heh .

As for the coraline eating. I've got more coraline than I want, and I think he's the cause as he tends to scrape some of it and spread it around the tank with his messy eating. Also, the tuxedos don't bite nearly as deeply into the rock or glass as other urchins. They simply shave the very top layer and never take all the coraline off of one spot. Heck my tank is acrylic and he's on my "glass" all the time cleaning and has never left a scratch.

 

[tanner86]

Yes, mine is the blue tuxedo urchin. He cracks me up, but I can't have him wearing my zoas. He has been banished to my sump. If I had larger zoa colonies it wouldn't bother me. I bought this one colony of zoas (5 of them) by the polyp and he has taken two. Not very happy.

 

[tanner86]

I couldn't leave the little guy in the sump, so I switched him to the biocube with plenty of coralline to munch on. He is having a blast and is free to decorate himself with any corals in there.