Blue Tuxedo

[Redrover]

I have a blue tuxedo urchin roming around my tank with small chips of rock stuck to his back...question is this normal ?

[untamed]

Ha..ha...I thought you were going to give me instructions on how to build my own Blue Tuxedo!

Yes, that is very normal urchin behaviour. I don't think they do it on purpose.

[Redrover]

Yuk-Yuk...I can do that...Long or short spines ?

[Reefer Rob]

I think they do actually do it on purpose, because they let them all go when they spawn. Mine seems to pick up mini-turbo snails, I feel sorry for the little things.

I look forward to the DIY robotic tuxedo urchin plans.

[Delphinus]

I'm pretty certain its done on purpose. They're sometimes called "decorator" urchins for this behaviour. I suspect it's for camoflage reasons. There have been times I've been looking directly at my urchin and not realizing he's right there thanks to all the rubble they're carrying.

If you have small frags, particularly zoo frags, be sure to glue or tie them down to something heavy otherwise they'll go walkabout on you. Many a reefer gets frustrated realizing their zoos are now buried in the rock somewhere ...

[Tom R]

It is very cool to see your blue tuxedo urchin all dressed up. My blue tuxedo urchin likes to cover himself with Zoo's and GSP and yes the odd baby snail.

Tom R

[Murminator]

Mine has been carrying around a mushrooms for 2 weeks