The problem with collector urchins...

[Donya]

...is that sometimes they don't just need a hat, they need the absolute fanciest of hats. Behold, a tiny Lytechinus variegatus and its most impressive feather duster worm hat.

Don't worry, after multiple iterations of fashion correction/relocation only to have the dingy little urchin zoom right over to retrieve what I had just stolen, I did finally give the poor worm a less stressful existence in my other tank, where it is doing well. (And please forgive the mucky algae; this tank is not a traditional reef and has grazers that I keep for curiosity purposes rather than just janitorial duty, so some scuzz is beneficial in this case)

 

[Colin_T]

So did one of the urchins pick up the yellow & blue tube worm and carry it around?
If yes, which urchin was it, the little one on the tube worm or the broad spine one at the bottom of the screen?

Nice looking tube worm by the way. How often do you feed it and what do you feed it?

 

[gimme30]

Gorgeous!

But stop it.
IwillnotdosaltagainIwillnotdosaltagainIwillnotdosaltagain

 

[Donya]

So did one of the urchins pick up the yellow & blue tube worm and carry it around?
If yes, which urchin was it, the little one on the tube worm or the broad spine one at the bottom of the screen?

It's that absurdly tiny white one holding the worm. The worm weighs quite a lot more than that little urchin does! Strong little guy to drag it up the glass like that. My reddish brown pencil urchins are model citizens by comparison and leave their tankmates in peace lol.

Nice looking tube worm by the way. How often do you feed it and what do you feed it?

A daily bit of polyp lab's reef roids in my tanls has done amazing things for my filter feeder populations without mucking up the water quality, growing sponges all over the rocks (which also helps feed the urchins in this tank) and maintaining a good population of pods and smaller encrusting-type filter feeder worms in dark areas. Some people complain about reef roids causing phosphate problems, but I grow so much macro in my reef and other algaes in this weird bta/urchin tank that it's a non-issue for me. I've also been doing live phyto every few days - used to mail order it but lately am having a go with my own culture which is going well so far. It's maintaining enough presence in-tank that I can always see some of it under the microscope if I take a random water sample. Presumably also from the phyto dosing, I have pretty stable populations of rofiters and some other very small pods that I added in single hits earlier in the year. If I can get my phyto cultures ticking along on a bit of a bigger scale I'm hoping to move to daily dosing with them for better consistency.

IwillnotdosaltagainIwillnotdosaltagainIwillnotdosaltagain

Give in to the dark side...let the salt flow through you lol.

 

[gimme30]

Nooooo! I can't get a tan there! I'll get pale and splotchy!