Live rock and sea urchins

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I just bought a sea urchin as part of clean up crew, along with hermits and snails. But now I heard urchins are bad for my live rock. Any imput?

 

[OrionGirl]

What kind of urchins? Some are worse than others. I got several hitch hiker urchins with my rock, and I don't think they are much of a problem, under most conditions. They are great detrivores, and will graze on a variety of algae. The normal accusation is that they eat the coralline algae, which is true, but they don't eat all of it in my tank, and the grazing actually encourages the algae to spread. So, not always a problem, but they can be.

 

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It's a "common green and white" urchine, about 2 inches.

 

[Snarkys]

the only reason people dont like them is because they eat algae. BUT if you have good contitions for coraline algae to grow they will spread the algae faster than it grows and cover the tank faster .....

 

[ca1ore]

The other problem with urchins, and primarily why I do not use them anymore, is their propensity to knock rocks over. Thy get their spines between the rocks and literally bulldose them apart. Very annoying!