What the **** is this?

[arnoldisnumero1]

Got a new coral today, this fella came along without my permission.It is the thing with the long spines in the pictures. Is this some kind of Urchin? Is it safe to keep in my reef? It moves around but has yet to leave the rock it came in on. Let me know if I should fry it up or let it be:)

[jojo22]

It appears to be a pencil urchin. They are reef safe but do eat coraline algae. So if your tank is small or does not have a lot of coraline you may want to trade him in for some credit.

[arnoldisnumero1]

thanks JoJo, I would say as long as he is no harm to my corals or fish, I am going to let him be. Thanks for the ID.

[jojo22]

No problem buddy. I would just watch that he doesn't eat to much of your coraline as that is what stops some other algae from growing, plus it makes the rocks look nicer.

[Germanman]

if you feed it some dried algae it will sometimes lay off the coralline but it loves the coralline.

[TwanDizzle]

i'd keep it just because they look pretty neat... wish i could find something cool like that when i buy stuff...lol... i do however have a peanut worm that came with some liverock...

[Fishieness]

i got a pincushion urchcin a whiel ago for my reef, and here is my little note: (lol)
although urchins do not naturaly eat corals, they do scrape their teeth across anything they can come in contact with, even if they are corals. usualy softies and such arent hurt, but if it is somethign hard like an sps that they could actualy climb on, dammage is possible. Also, in an attempt to camoflauge, they will pick up all sorts of thigns and bulldoze all sorts of others, including any corals taht are not firmly attached. i had a lot of sps frags that were either look on a disk or wedged into a rock, and they were all picked up, scattered all around, left in the sand, behind my rockwork, and knocked over of left in places so they were touching, IE, death or at least temp recession on all cases.
just something to watch out for

[arnoldisnumero1]

great addition Fish..Always great to get many angles on a question, that is what makes this forum awesome, I will keep a close eye on things. To date he hasnt ventured very far from the coral that he was brought in on..maybe he is being corraled by my rude tomato clown...LOL he is a pisser.