How do you feed your urchin?

[Cory]

How do you feed your sea urchin? Mine is a diademma urchin and i try to drop an algae wafer made of nori to it but it doesnt always get it. Is there an easy way to feed them? Id like to feed it daily because its cleaned my rocks, but its becoming a pain.

 

[ZoWhat]

Urchins are clean up crew member that eats algae on mostly glass and sometime LR.

No target feeding is really required

 

[Cory]

Urchins are clean up crew member that eats algae on mostly glass and sometime LR.

No target feeding is really required

How long have you had yours for? I read they can live a really long time.

 

[lejeune981]

I've had my white pincusion for well over a year.. I've never intentionally fed it.. it has found the nori sheet I feed the tangs... and completely demolished it... but over all.. it's quite happy making little white trails on my rock work and eating anything on the rock.. I've even seen it eat aptasia... tube worms...and the numorius algae outbreaks I had durring the ugly stages.. oh and it's a coraline seeking missile

 

[amazongb]

I've noticed that when my urchin is hungry and can't find enough to eat on its own, it will move to the surface water line. When here, I'll take a small piece of seaweed and push it in between the urchin and the glass, and he'll eat it every time. After a couple of feedings, he'll move back into the live rock etc..

 

[Cory]

I've had my white pincusion for well over a year.. I've never intentionally fed it.. it has found the nori sheet I feed the tangs... and completely demolished it... but over all.. it's quite happy making little white trails on my rock work and eating anything on the rock.. I've even seen it eat aptasia... tube worms...and the numorius algae outbreaks I had durring the ugly stages.. oh and it's a coraline seeking missile

Ive never seen a white one! Pretty sweet looking. They really are great for algae. Mine keeps my rocks clean and spreads corraline. But he devours algae wafers.

 

[Cory]

I've noticed that when my urchin is hungry and can't find enough to eat on its own, it will move to the surface water line. When here, I'll take a small piece of seaweed and push it in between the urchin and the glass, and he'll eat it every time. After a couple of feedings, he'll move back into the live rock etc..

Thats what mine was doing too and i was feeding it there every day. Until recently it started to roam the tank again. Now im worried about it eating again. I lost one of the two durring the tank swap and nearly lost this one and almost all its spines fell off. But i fed it every day and it regrew them.

 

[amazongb]

Thats what mine was doing too and i was feeding it there every day. Until recently it started to roam the tank again. Now im worried about it eating again. I lost one of the two durring the tank swap and nearly lost this one and almost all its spines fell off. But i fed it every day and it regrew them.

If he's roaming around you should be good, that's a good sign imo.

 

[RavenSF]

I fed my Tuxedo urchin for the first time yesterday. I waited for him to come up to the top of the glass and put a nickel sized piece of dried seaweed under the edge of him and he grabbed onto it.

 

[lejeune981]

I fed my Tuxedo urchin for the first time yesterday. I waited for him to come up to the top of the glass and put a nickel sized piece of dried seaweed under the edge of him and he grabbed onto it.

I've tried that.. mine just ends up wearing the sea weed as a hat instead lol

 

[Tony888]

The best way is to place the seaweed near the waterline when the urchin is on the glass.

 

[Cory]

I need to build some sort of sea urchin feeder

 

[PhreeByrd]

I've never fed urchins, and I have one that's at least ten years old.

 

[Cory]

I've never fed urchins, and I have one that's at least ten years old.

Wow thats great success. What kind is it?

 

[PhreeByrd]

Just an ordinary pincushion, grayish white color. Nothing fancy but still kind of fun to watch it cruise around and move stuff.

 

[Reefs of Space]

Mine went from algae to coralline, to clove polyps, to blastos, and then on to a montipora cap. I've had it for about a year. I feed it strips of baked seaweed every week now to keep it fed and away from the corals. Where ever it's at, I just rinse a strip and stick it right under him. He always grabs it and pulls it in.

 

[Trey302]

Not the best picture but here's mine eating a piece of seaweed. I usually wait until he comes close to the top of the glass and basically try to wedge it between him and the glass. Usually takes 30 seconds to a minute for him to take hold of it, but once he's got it he stays put until it's all gone.

 

[pijao81]

I've never fed mines.. It eats all the coraline in the tank.. One has more than a year an the other 4 months.. The clean the glass.. And the rocks all the time.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have a couple that I collected in the Florida Keys while snorkeling some off the beach reef flats. I've never intentionally fed them and they seem to be doing just fine. However, every once and a while they do come to the waterline on the glass. Next time that happens I'll try feeding them some nori.

Thanks for sharing the suggestion!

 

[Paul B]

I generally don't feed urchins but when this guy finds a piece of clam, he makes short work of it. I have had him 5 or 10 years (I forget)

I got him as big as a nickel.
Here he is eating a clam. He doesn't know he is a vegan.