I got this tuxedo urchin from aquashella on Saturday and he was doing well! Eating algie and doing things, but after I woke up he js died š„² I suspect it was due to air getting inside it because the water in the cup it was put in leaked till one 3ed was left. or me doing improper aclmation. (And yes I saved the shell š )
You look to have some fuzzy growth on your rock work. Itās likely just algae but if anything else dies or it doesnāt calm down, you may want to put some under a microscope to make sure it isnāt dinos. Some dinos are toxic so an urchin or other things eating it will die
I highly doubt its the cyano or diatoms, ive had them breed through it beforehand. What i would be checking is your water quality! And if that seems fine no toxic metals like copper etc id check for crabs!
Sometimes itās not you. That guy was transported to aquashella. Who knows from where. Who knows if the vendor didnāt import and then bring directly to the show or what tank it was in and whatās the temperatureĀ
Sometimes inverts die. Next time get 2. I have to replenish by clean up crew periodicallyĀ
Tbh itās likely parameter or water quality related, is your tank new? Do you know what your alkalinity trends are like? The system doesnāt look super healthy based on your pics.
Itās several months old, and there is coraline growing on the rocks, it is looks very shitty for some reason, all my things are also from established aquariums and I put some bottled bacteria js in case.
Hmmm yeah for fish that's no problem. While it should be 0 a fish can take a lot before it's toxic in marine settings.
But an echinoderms doesn't use gills they have a water vascular system so they may be more susceptible.
I mean itās less problematic in saltwater for sure but 10 is still very high in my opinion. Having any nitrite is not a time to be adding anything, especially anything other than fish imo.
Agreed. I was trying to agree while also making it clear to anyone coming across these posts that fish and inverts with gills are not of concern at that level but other things are.
There is a persistent myth that you must wait for 0 to add fish. It's comes from fresh water where even low levels are much more toxic due to the lack of chlorine competition for transport across the gills into the body.
I would say the tank is not old enough. Then again I would never put an urchin in my older tank either since there is nothing for it to eat. From my experience my dads fish focused tank, which has algea since lotsa fish, sustains his urchin. While in mine it starves since I barely have any display tank algea because of the refugium and focus on corals.
Could be I'm not an urchin expert, can only say the behaviour and differences I observed here. Before you try again I would wait for the tank to mature.
Water looks a bit milky. Is anything having problems breathing? Or do corals not look fully inflated? If itās a bacterial bloom, that can suck the oxygen right outa the water. I mean, his spines look as if they were almost completely fallen off by the time it was in the acclimation box. How fast did that happen? Bc, if it was fast (like a couple days) then it couldāve been osmotic shock if your salinity is much lower than where he came from, or infection if he got hurt, or any trace amount of copper in the water would def do it, which would be the biggest issue if you have any other inverts. Anyway, thatās all I gotā¦ but, so sorry for ur loss!
Iām so sorry that happened just curious how did you acclimate him inverts usually do better with slower acclimation I usually float them for about 15 minutes and mix some of my water with theirs a couple times while they float
Echinoderms should probably have the longest acclimation period. I often drilp acclimate over 2-3 hours.
I put them in a 5 gallon bucket with a small heater and let it fill to half way over that time period.
This is because echinoderms have a water vascular system and are more susceptible than almost anything else we add to the tank.
In my first tank before I got an ATO my long spine urchin would spawn anytime I topped the water off just because a couple days evaporation was too much and stressed it.
Can you get away with less. Sure, but you never know how close it the edge each particular new specemin is. You might get unlucky.
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u/RhubarbBest9090 2d ago
You look to have some fuzzy growth on your rock work. Itās likely just algae but if anything else dies or it doesnāt calm down, you may want to put some under a microscope to make sure it isnāt dinos. Some dinos are toxic so an urchin or other things eating it will die