Long spine urchin

[Rwc]

Purchased one in hopes of it doing some cleanup down in my sump. Anyone have any experience with them and do they bother coral at all

 

[redfishbluefish]

The bother is their spines.....they'll move stuff all around for you with their spines.....maybe even wear a couple frags. Otherwise they won't "eat" anything other than algae.

 

[jgraz]

They will clean up the area pretty fast to depending on its size. I picked up a small tuxedo urchin and it's done a spectacular job in my frag tank. Just make sure to keep it fed when it's all cleaned up.

I believe the long spine eats the widest variety of algae of pretty much any clean up crew as well.

 

[myrjon]

Have 2 ...the long spine eats the widest variety of algae! Yes they move things occasionally . glue glue glue. Spines you find every now and then .Plus they do hurt when you hit a spine.

 

[dougc]

Just got 2 longspines yesterday. They are just flat out cool.

 

[Paul B]

This guy has been in my reef so many years I have no idea when I got it. Never hurt anything, except me.

 

[Rwc]

Thanks for the reassurance guys. I was going to put him in the frag/sump but put in the display instead

 

[redfishbluefish]

I remember these from my diving days in the early 70's when I dove the Florida Keys. They would literally cover the bottom where you couldn't even find a spot to kneel or touch down. What was wild is that they could "see" you (my guess is the shadow), and the spines would follow you as you swam over. Unfortunately they have all died from that virus or disease that came around, I believe in the late 70's, early 80's.