Sea Urching dying?

[DACJ]

I have 3 sea urchins in my 29G biocube, all different in size. Recently the biggest one has lost most of its spikes, and often fall of the sand bed everyday if not more than once a day. They other two of the smaller sized sea urchins and all my fish are still doing fine so I don't suspect it to be a watch quality problem...

Does anyone have any ideas on whether anything may be happening to it specifically? Or is it just dying cause of aging?

Now, I know people often suggest putting it in the freezer to euthanize the urchin, however I have not done that because it still eats, just hard to get around and I AM hoping that it will come back to normal state....

More over, it has fallen into the centre of the tank where I cannot reach it because of all the LR settings....I can see half of it's body, I still it little movement of tentacles and small spikes, but it's been in the same place for at least 8 hrs now, IF it does die, should I remove all the settings and remove the urchin? or can I leave it in there to be dissolved or whatsoever?

Or perhaps someone can give me insights on that it is not dying?

Thanks a lot!

[Kryptic4L]

where do I begin, whats your nitrates at ?


also 3 urchins in a 29 gallon ? I will just assume its a big black spiney urchin, which can theoretically get bigger then your tank. To have 3 of these seems like alot to me.

Spines falling off = water quality a good majority of the time.

to many in such a small tank not enough food for them all. YOUr tank levels might be out of whack. I would find a new home for a couple of them I have 1 small tuxedo urchin and he does a good job on his own. I also have 1 slider conch which is doing a good job of turning the sand over it will bury it's self in the sand and move along turning it over as it moves then it will come to the top and move along the top layer.

Bill

[DACJ]

All three urchins are tuxedo urchins if not the same from mespilia globulus? At least the biggest one is mespilia globulus, and it's only a little bigger than a toonie, the smallest tuxedo is smaller than a quarter...there seems to be a lot of film aglae on tank glass which i leave for them to eat, and no hair algae at all, some randon green small algae which I don't see them preying on...

Water quality is in measurement, all showing 0, and as the two smaller one are doing just fine, so I am not very convinced that my water had any spikes overnight...the one having spikes falling of is actually the biggest one, (less than 5 cm in diameter including the spike length) and it's the first thing that was introduced to the tank about 10 months ago...

BTW, it has came out from the centre of sand bed now, on the glass corners... let's just hope it doesn't fall again...I really don't want to kill it...
I was about to trade it in with the LFS, but it's only 8 dollar credit and I really don't want to give it away since it was my first tank specimen =D

It could be some thing in the water did you get your rock from a LFS or buy second hand get a copper test kit and do a test post results. do you skimm and what color is the skimmate you may not be pulling enough wast out of the water.

Bill