I Thought I Was In The Clear Zone With

[xNOTLOCx]

been looking great up until i turned on the lights he didnt shed any spikes and never has, but some of his longer spikes are like cut in half now and i dont know what it is!
nitrates=15
nitrites=.0
ammonia=.0
ph=8.2
alk= 3.66
kh=10.2
phosphate=.5
calcium=415
thats all i test for and my frogspawn is doing good, im doing weekly waterchanges about 20% of the tank with my ne reverse osmosis system, and im just not sure what it could be, it has alot of new little spikes comign up but its always had em, and maybe 10 bi long spikes left the rest are there just the tips are broken off, nothing fell or urt it, could it b a lack of food? hes always munchin on somthing, especially when he finds some corraline algae on a crabs back or snails back, its a black long spined urchin by the way, i called my lfs and there freaking response was= uuu idno could be anything, have a good day, its cuz the guy isnt the one i normally go to he works next week grrrr..

 

[SkiFletch]

Usually cut in half spikes mean predation or or physical damage. Maybe it found a powerhead inviting?

Double check that PO4 reading. 0.5 is pretty high... Are you seeing any algae growth?

 

[xNOTLOCx]

uum well i tested it before i did my last water change, but hmm i have a big crab that i havta take back could he do it , and then ya it loves the powerheads but i see the ends are growing back..

edit: ya i have too much algae, if i forget to clean it for a day or so then ya its not fun to scrape it off, sometimes its green algae, then well no corraline yet, a little here n there but mostly on the grass, and then some pink n red algae i think thas bad so i took it off

 

[SkiFletch]

Might want to try a phosphate binder and test your input water for phosphates to see if you're adding any with your water change. Will help things out a lot

 

[xNOTLOCx]

ya uuum i did a 20% water change today and tested my po4 and it didnt change so i have a suspision that its in my water and its not being taken from the ro unin, so ya ill test it n c what it is, and my urchin is into evrything and my water quality is good so i figure he just had a little accident, cant blame the curious little guy, sometimes he will find the powerheads water output and sit in front if it ude think the water current would anno it, most of the time it moves, its funny when the lights go on and off the spikes jumble about like hes all excites night is coming,

 

[david nash]

hi i david nash do yyou konw how to do egg

do you konw how to do egg

 

[Lynden]

hi i david nash do yyou konw how to do egg

do you konw how to do egg

What do you mean by that?


I had a pencil urchin once, I really liked it, but one day it appeared to be split in half
Soon after, it dissapeared forever - and a few weeks ago I found an old piece of its skeleton.
The split appeared to be the work of a mantis shrimp, but if that were true, why didn't he finish the urchin off?

I also had another pencil urchin. But I made a big, cruel mistake with him because I didn't know better, so don't flame me for saying this . But anyways, one day a few of the urchin's spines appeared loose. I found out that they were immobile, and the muscle attaching them appeared degenerated. So, it gently removed them, which I found out later was a no-no. He died.

-Lynden

 

[xNOTLOCx]

oh im sorry do u have another? ya " I found out how the spikes broke," ok so today i decided to show off my tank and i see my urchin fall from the top and hit the floor, well i guess it thinks it can crawl upsidedon on the water surface cuz it tried to crawl on the surface as if it were glass and well of course it fell hmm idno but i know its getting plenty to eat cuz its growin like crazy, all the spikes are almost regenerated, kinda odd right before my eyes.

 

[JJ1234567]

How big do those things get?

 

[xNOTLOCx]

oh oh well in japan they eat em or china im not sure but, my dad used to dive and he said hed see em like 1 foot long spines, i didnt beleive him, couldnt find any pics. until i went to my lfs and looked in the back of the tank were its hard to get to, and i see this urchin the body was 6 inches across and the spikes WOW they were awseomley big like maybe 1 foot maybe a few inches more, it was awsome, they said they have no idea how old it is, and hmmm i just was thinking, myne better grow slow so i can have time to upgrade to the 80 gallon acrylic im getting, what about pencil urchins? hey JJ1234567 what type of fish is that in your picture ?

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, in the wild, long-spined urchins can grow really big. I've held soccer ball sized ones (including spines) out on the reef. Really freaky. Dunno about those raised in captivity though...

 

[JJ1234567]

Well my LFS had it listed as a christmas wrasse. However the website I pulled it off of had it listed as a red checkerboard wrasse. Here is the official name: Halichoeres ornatissimus