Reef Discussion

[daveH]

Noticed this little fella working it's way around the tank. I thought it was just a snail with some algae on it, but it seems to be collecting little shells on it's back.
I think it must have come out of some rock I put in there a month or so ago.
Any ideas as to what it may be?

 

[webber555]

Collector urchin. Nice find.

 

[Lesley]

Collector urchin. I had one but removed because wow can they eat. He was small and managed to strip a very large rock of coraline in a very short time. White patches every where. Lol

 

[lonepoppy]

Wow, never seen one this small.

I did have one but he got that big that he ended up with an unpleasant nickname, he collected things from one side of the tank (including corals) and would leave them on the other. We had to give him away in the end.

 

[daveH]

It's only about one and a half cm across. I might leave it where it is in the Yasha for a little longer, see what happens.

 

[Wolffman64]

Yep, it's a decorator urchin. I originally had 2 or 3 coming from my LR about 4 months after I started my RSM250, and they really kept on breeding. At one point I had 15 of them. They somehow don't like my RSM500 though, since all of them have died off over the last year since I moved them across. It's either something different now, or something is eating them..