HELP!! Tang with urchin wound!

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mollybabes

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Jan 3, 2003
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MY idiot yellow tang swam into my long spine urchin (diadema sp. )!!What should I do? It is sticking out of him still, but since you can kinda see through him, it doesn't appear to be puncturing any organs, but I am not sure where the swim bladder may be. Around the wound and up a little bit, is kinda whitish, or bluish, is that the poison? Should I pull it out or leave it in to work it's way out? I know that urchin spines are made to go only one way-farther in, so would pulling it out hurt him more? Should I Quarantine him with mela-fix? Oh, what in the world should I do?

BTW, the stupid fish is just swimming around like normal ane eating the seaweed I just put in as aggressively as ever.

Thank you for any help, and hurry with answers please!
 
I'd monitor--you will want to remove the spine, a swell, so it doen'st maintain an open wound. Otherwise--keep up the water quality and the fish should heal.

What size tank is this? I've kept urchins in tanks for years and never had a fish get injured.
 
It is a thirty gallon. We've had him for a year and we got him pretty small, and never had a fish get hurt, except when we got a new damsel and released it (accidentally)into the flow of the powerhead. The urchin was at the end of the flow. But anyways, he's gotten rather large recently-about the size of a small tangerine. We are looking into donating him to an aquarium or upgrading to a larger tank.
 
Upgrade! Tangs in small tanks seldom do well, and long spines shouldn't be in small tanks with fish for this exact reason--there's no place for the fish to safely swim without hitting the urchin, and since the urchin moves around, it's hard for the fish to 'learn' where to avoid. I'd go for a minimum of a 75, with a 90 being better.
 
Hey, get that spine out asap they work there way in deeper over time. I read somewhere about a diver that got one in the palm of his hand and it worked it's way out the other side a couple of years later.
 
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