grazers- long spine urchins for control

[Lee Stearns]

There is a hairy crud that grows. I have heard many ways to get rid of this and I do some combination of them all-

1st- Out compete it  for nutrients with some macro algea in the fuge, I have the luxury of being able to rotate rocks full of calurpa from my fuge because of the three voracious Tangs- My experience is that the tangs will graze some on the hairy growing crud mix, but would prefer almost any thing else green. I am not sure I would let calurpa get too much of a foothold in the main tank if you did not have a fuge. Chaeto (spaghetti) is a bit more suitatble as it can be withdrawn anytime.

2nd and to the point of this topic is grazers- I have one mythrix emerald crab that has been great at cleaning that hairy crud. And I know I am lucky it has never developed a taste for any of my soft corals.(yet)

Snails- I have two ceriths that seem to get around a lot and I would add a few more if it was out of control- The fighting conch stays pretty much in the sand cleaning down low as do the nassarius who always appear at feeding time- But I have never seen them eat anything (they are supposed to be at the detrius anyway). Astreas never have done well in my main tank, Though I would rate them as only average in my nano and 29. Turbos are better grazers, but then they move just about everthing around so I have migrated them to my fuge. Nerites are some of my favorite glass grazers, though I have never seen them head for the thicker hairy crud patches.

Urchins and onto my question-I am thinking of adding a long spine urchin- for a couple of reasons- Baby Bangais, for one, cleaning for another- unless someone can talk me out of getting one. I am looking for anyone that has some experience to give me a little input here- I do know that they can and will eat some of your coraline algea- I was hoping to be able to satiate them with the easier to get crud algea and supplement with macro (calurpa) from the fuge to keep it from totally decimating my coraline. (I have read the recent reef keeping magazine article on urchins, and have been tagged on more than one occasion by their painful needles when diving in murky water) Any long spine urchin keeper out there?

[michaelg]

Lee,

I have 2 short spine ones in the 58.  Other than occassionally moving a coral around- not much more than the snails do anyways, they have been no problem.  These are much safer as far as getting stung, but I don't know if baby bangers would make a home of the spines- probably not long enough.  The urchins did a job on my tank.

 

Michael

[miller]

i had a long spine they are grweat for grazing algae but they also grow very fast and as they grow become clumsy i also think it may have damaged on of my montipora but i cant be sure of it.id say get one let it do its job then get rid of it.i also had to catch a purple tank and pull a spine out of its face not real easy

[mogurnda]

I have been thinking about them for both the future bangers and for the greenbanded gobies.  I saw this thread at Reef Central, and thought you might be interested.  The last post is the best.

 

I'm still thinking about it.

[Lee Stearns]

Thanks for the thread - You are right I am worried about the bull doser aspects and the size- I could always move it around between the main tank the fuge and the 29G tank where I will be raising the baby bangers. Keep it in the 29G with the bangers while they grow- and then move it to the main tank for short cleaning periods of a couple of weeks- Handling will be touchy to say the least- Getting tagged by one of these guys is quite painful as the thread descibes pretty acurately. I was at Roozens yesterday where I had seen them before but he didn't have any. Anyone seen one recently?

[peacetypes]

i had one, gave it away though. all it did was knock over stuff.

 

Robert

[gastone]

Lee, I have two in my 42.  If you want one, let me know.  I've had them for about 10 months now on an order of rock from Gulf-View.  They only knock over frags that aren't glued down.  

 

Garrett.