Does a sea urchin kill a fish???

[swhastan]

In this moring, I noticed a sea urchin was eating a percular.

I don't know the sea urchin hunted the percular or the sea urchin ate the percular after she died.

Anyway, I missed several fishes such as fire gorby, flame angels and etc in my tank without any reason.

Can a sea urchin hunt a fish???

[tydtran]

Sea urchins are opportunistic. I don't think it killed the fish.

[Mattmcf]

i would have to say no. Most likely the fish had died and the urchin decided it would be an easy meal. As for the other fish you lost, did you find their remains? Or did they just disappear? Clowns are pretty hardy fish so you may want to make sure your parameters are in line.

[Angel7989]

I once had my Sea urchin eat one of my Damsel fish while it was still alive. the damsel thought it would be a good idea to swim into my mantis shrimps burrow tube and got whacked by it, it wasnt dead but was at the top of the tank being blown around by the current and the urchin just happend to get a hold of it

[Lmecher]

An urchin would have a very hard time hunting a healthy fish. Mine is quite large and has never bothered my fish in the past year. So sad you lost your clown. : (

[Thetman36]

my urchin ate my live clown today it happened after lights out I went down stairs and saw the clown trapped between the side glass and the urchin. it happens to be the spot where the clown likes to bed down for the night. I have 3 other clowns that sleep in the same spot I hope this is a one time event.

[lightning whale]

guys am reviving this thread because i have fish disappearing in my tank i have already lost many and i just noticed that there is an urchin in my tank came as a hitchhiker its small but the fish that i lost are all small to (chromies, bicolor dottyback and yellow tail damsel) actually the last time i saw the dottyback was when i released it and i have reaquascaped but no sign of them.... please help

[Raceimage]

Do you have nightlights? See if any other "Hitchhikers" come out at night. When I first set my tank up(no fish only live rock), my son and I would hit the live rock with flashlights to see what came out. I have 2 large urchins. The only fish I have lost have committed suicide - jumped out of tank. What else do you have in the tank? I have a coral banded shrimp that chased fish.

[NYCBOB]

I have always kept urchins in my reefs. My urchins have never touched any fish dead or alive.

[lightning whale]

now i have three clowns two big and one small, rettrrei anemone, striped damsel (the mistake of my life), 4 blue chromies, three lyretail anthies (used to be 4 but one went missing), two yellow&purple wrasse and one blue devil damsel, small mushrooms, small zoas and my sand sifting star. just to note that i lost fish before and after adding the anemone and some other fish

i have done night checking many time nothing except night time snails and a very small crab that goes into hiding when it sees my shadow. i guessed they might have jumped but no stick fish around the tank. I recently added two cleaner shrimps and two fire shrimps one fire and one cleaner went missing from day one the remaining two were still around but the other fire is missing now. something is definitely killing them

[Thetman36]

I know for a fact that my clown was eaten by my urchin because i watched him get ingested. it took a long time but he was eaten by the urchin. when i discovered the horrific act it was too late to save the clown so i let nature take its course. But the urchin does not hunt down the fish it just got lucky.

[Khemul]

The reason we keep clean up crews is because they eat things we don't want rotting in the tank. This includes fish (or to be more specific, fish food).

We reconcile this concept with safety by picking creatures that aren't capable of bringing down a healthy fish. But by that very nature, we can't prevent them from taking down an unhealthy fish. Otherwise they wouldn't do the job we want them too.

Bristleworms, hermit crabs, some urchins, etc.. All of them will eat a fish if it is served up to them on a platter. But we keep them because they are incapable of taking down a healthy fish.



In lightning whale's case, I'd be looking for a Mantis Shrimp, hitchhiker crab or a bad hitchhiker worm.

[mdbannister]

Most sea animals are opportunistic and the sea urchin is no different (as stated already). Urchins eating live fish is rare, but it would possibly happen if the fish was already in poor shape (as in the case of the fish that got whacked by the mantis shrimp and eaten by the urchin). I would say an urchin eating a sleeping fish is probably a VERY rare occurence, but not impossible.

[Driver13]

Never seen one kill a fish, but have certainly seen them eat them after they are dead.

[Chuck2810]

Hate to resurrect an old one - but I got a small pincushion about 3 or 4 weeks ago. It really cleaned up a lot of the long algae. It has doubled in size to about a ping-pong size. Yesterday - it had on of my ocellaris in its grasp - everyone looked happy up till then. I chalked it up to just scavenging. All water parms are great - and I then did a 20% change and also replaced my carbon packs. So now, the (rather large and goofy) Diamond Goby was in it's grasp - I got it out and it is limp and it must have just literally died. Could this beast be a hunter??? I have one clown left now and the rest are corals and snails.
Only other 'addition' is that the algae seem to have developed large green pods - like bladderworts. Look like hard eggs almost. They are on all the walls. I scraped them off last week. I have a lot of calcium deposits - I have never seen those before but this is my first reef tank.
This urchin is a speed demon - moves half the length of the tank in 5 min, often. Ideas?

[outssider]

I don't think there is a chance in hell he ate a healthy fish

[Urchinhead]

Urchins are omnivorous. People, including many marine biologists, tend to be surprised to hear this.in general they eat "algae" but will go after other things including fish. An urchin "catching" a healthy fish is highly unlikely. And if you do supplementary feeding with plain unflavored Nori (seaweed) from the grocery store at a target feeding location in the tank when there is no algae you will likely reduce the problem.

Also go with the smaller urchin's like the Tuxedo instead of a long spine or purple urchin. Less likely for problems. Avoid rock boring (looks like a ww2 deep sea mine) as well as Australian fire urchins. The former will burrow into your rock and the latter is venomous like about 60%+ of the flora and fauna that comes out of Oz.

[FoxFace Fish]

I do not know if this help but I had a fish commit suicide by swimming into my long-spined urchins at maximum velocity........ Stupid Damsel!!!!

[joshky]

Originally Posted by FoxFace Fish

I do not know if this help but I had a fish commit suicide by swimming into my long-spined urchins at maximum velocity........ Stupid Damsel!!!!

Depending on the damsel, it may have been a blessing.

[FoxFace Fish]

Originally Posted by joshky

Depending on the damsel, it may have been a blessing.

But But I loved my Damsel Dori!!!

My little Cousin named it

[chitown tom]

my long spine sea urchin ate my baby long tentacle anemone.

I saw it with my own eyes.

Needless to say he was rehomed real quick!