Long Spine Sea Urchin

The best answer is to allow the tank to grow enough of the food it needs. Supplemental feeding is hit and miss for Urchins. Did you attend the presentation about this at the MWRF?

They feed with five very sharp and very strong teeth plates that scrape coralline algae and other organic material off the LR and other surfaces. I had never heard the name before that I can remember, but we learned at the MWRF that the scraping teeth unit is called Aristotles Lantern.

So with that being their main food and their way of eating it, they have trouble with anything else. There was an experiment done once where Diadema Urchins were fed only Caulerpa. They died within a few months. The same thing may happen if the only food is Nori, though I found a link where one hobbyist successfully feeds Organic Romaine Lettuce. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/22/112152/903/835/461894

I wish you the best of luck, but if the Urchin at first seems to be running all over the tank trying to find some food, I would suggest you give it to someone that has the proper food. Especially if starts to look lazy and doesn't move much, at that point it's almost too late to put it in a tank with Coralline Algae, because then it may be too weak to eat and it will soon die.

In the wild, most Urchins only travel a foot or two from their home, eating the coralline and other algae that grew since they last ventured out. In these pics the white trail/area is where the Urchin ate within the last few days.






Edited by Mark Peterson - November 13 2010 at 10:11pm

I loved my long spine urchin--until he outgrew my tank.  When I got it it was the diameter of a quarter, and had barely any spines.  When I sold it it was past the size of a silver dollar, and had spines up to 6/7 inches long.  Some pics of it (and it's mouth).