Sharkey18 June 10, 2010 Share June 10, 2010 I have two black urchins that came on my live rock from tamba bay saltwater so it is pretty safe to assume that these are gulf of mexico / carribbean urchins. (Unless there are foreign urchins hanging out in Tampa... ) My question is what kind of urchins are they? Are they long spined urhins, just run of the mill black urchins? Any ideas? http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae40/sharkey1818/IMG_2663.jpg Sorry about pic quality... http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae40/sharkey1818/IMG_2666.jpg Laura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surf&turf June 10, 2010 Share June 10, 2010 I have two black urchins that came on my live rock from tamba bay saltwater so it is pretty safe to assume that these are gulf of mexico / carribbean urchins. (Unless there are foreign urchins hanging out in Tampa... ) My question is what kind of urchins are they? Are they long spined urhins, just run of the mill black urchins? Any ideas? http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae40/sharkey1818/IMG_2663.jpg Sorry about pic quality... http://i955.photobucket.com/albums/ae40/sharkey1818/IMG_2666.jpg Laura How big are they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mogurnda June 10, 2010 Share June 10, 2010 Look like rock-boring urchins, Echinometra lucunter.I had a few tiny ones ride in that ultimately grew big and beautiful. They were great for keeping coralline off the glass, and did not bulldoze and move stuff around like my current variegated urchin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b June 10, 2010 Share June 10, 2010 For a few years I had an urchin collection business where I would SCUBA for them in New York. They looked just like that and we call them purple urchins. They live all along the eastern US Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmubeach June 10, 2010 Share June 10, 2010 cool looking guys ... for what its worth I'd never put an urchin in my tank unless I knew excetatly what it was ...Being said it would be hard to identify a random urchin without a book or knowledge on the subject. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mogurnda June 10, 2010 Share June 10, 2010 cool looking guys ... for what its worth I'd never put an urchin in my tank unless I knew excetatly what it was ...Being said it would be hard to identify a random urchin without a book or knowledge on the subject. Try Humann and Deloach's field guide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sharkey18 June 10, 2010 Author Share June 10, 2010 Thanks everyone, One of them is about 2 inches across and the other is about 1.5 across. They were much smaller when I first noticed them. I didn't add them to the tank, they were hitchhikers on the live rock.... by the time i saw them they had been in there for about 2 months. Since they didn't seem to be doing any harm I let them be. They are voracious algae scavengers and pretty quick movers as well. Not as pretty as the purples, but certainly could be the E. lucunter. Laura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mogurnda June 10, 2010 Share June 10, 2010 Here's mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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