What the???

[FL Knifemaker]

Here's a weird one, at least for me anyway. For the past few weeks, I noticed this "clump" if shells moving around my tank. They seemed to gather up and then started moving I finally got a picture of what was under it!! Anyone ever see such a critter??? The various shells this thing is hauling around are now permenantly attached.

 

[mogurnda]

Looks like a little urchin. Some species like to stick things to themselves for camouflage. If it's from the gulf, the closest species I could find was the variegated urchin, Lytechinus variegatus. "Often cover themselves with seagrass and other debris to shelter from light," according to Humann and DeLoach. Probably a useful grazer.

 

[FL Knifemaker]

Thanks for the ID Dave!

It seems to like the one little area of my tank that has some red cyano. I can't really tell if it's eating any of it but it's not doing any harm. It looks like a walking scrap heap

 

[mogurnda]

You're welcome! I'd be surprised if it liked cyano (almost nothing does), but who knows.

 

[FL Knifemaker]

I really got a good look at it today. The darn thing is carrying about 10 times it's own mass in broken shells. Somehow it stuck them all together. Unlike the other urchins in the tank in never leaves the substrate.