[fergo]

HI all,

im not having much luck finding any infor on caring for these creatures? can someone provide a link to some care information and alike.

Im considering getting one, but not until i know more about them.

Thanks

[leebca]

I moved this post from the Marine Fish: Care, Health and Disease Treatment Forum. Hope you'll get help here.

[FireEater]

They eat algae and some eat coralline. Mine was collected locally here on the Texas Gulf Coast and it quite big. About the size of a softball now. It eats coralline and really strips it down in the refugium.

Every month or so I might stick a piece of silverside in it's needles to feed it, but generally I never mess with it. When I do all the damsels in that tank go nuts trying to get to the food they can't reach.

It gets on the glass and eats the algae also when I let cleaning the glass go for awhile.

There are many varieties of urchins of have. They can wreck havoc in a reef tank as they bulldoze things over constantly.

Since you live in Brisbane, do you get to collect locally or is that allowed there?

[almostdiva]

They can be really destructive. I had a long-spine (diadema sp.) in my 55 g. It was smallish when I got it, but they grow REALLY fast. And they definitely eat corraline algae in an aquarium setting. I returned mine to the store for credit after about 3 months -- it totally decimated the coralline on my LR and glass.

Rebecca

[leebca]

I have had one damage my acrylic aquarium. Their teeth are something else!

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by fergo

HI all,

im not having much luck finding any infor on caring for these creatures? can someone provide a link to some care information and alike.

Im considering getting one, but not until i know more about them.

Thanks

Check out this article on urchins by Dr. Ron Shimek.

I know someone who has a Diadema urchin that he feeds with nori. He just wraps the nori around a rock with rubber bands and the urchin loves it.

I'm not recommending a Diadema urchin, I'm just reporting what someone who has one feeds it.



P.S. -- Some urchins will eat up your coralline algae and some urchins will leave marks on your acrylic tank walls, if you have an acrylic tank.

[fergo]

wow thanks guys. I read the artical and decided not to go for the urchin as i kinda like my corraline.

Thanks for changing the post Leebca, to be honest i was not sure which forum to put this into.

Thanks for the info Guys.

PS. got my first piece of Leather coral today, so i will see how i go.