urchin spikes turning white?

[Phxkeller]

I have a long spine urchin that's black spikes are starting to get stripped and some are turning white.. is this poor water quality? or just a shedding process...

Kinda like the older you get with a few grey hairs showing up :) I'm 31 so I learning 1st hand :)

Thanks for any feedback or explanations....

Frank

[ADA33]

I did some google searching. It seams to be a bacteria. But of course I am no expert

Try googleing The bald-sea-urchin disease

Dosnt seem to find any solutions but seems to be a bacteria.

Here is the google search I did
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=urchin+disease&spell=1

[Phxkeller]

Widefx THANKS for the feedback...

That appears to be a growth like build up from reading the articles. This is actually like a grey hair or the spike loosing its color. No build up or calcaneouse looking spots(lumps)

I hope I read that right.

[greenbean36191]

Some Diadema do get white or striped spines, which is normal. Without seeing a picture though, it's hard to say for sure since white could also be the result of tissue loss over the spine. Most likely its nothing to worry about though.

[LeslieH]

Sounds normal to me too.

[SanFranTodd]

mine has been doing the exact same thing, here's a photo:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/pc5e3edae68ab64f244856ed46d74584a/e78bd6fe.jpg


i haven't been able to find much info on the problem...

[lucifer]

this is what my longspine urchin looks like now dont know what happened just found him like that yesterday he was 6-7 inches round he:s still alive but i was reading on marine depot that it will be venomous if it dies should i just toss him now to save the trouble or is this normal btw my hammer coral and amemone are closed also some green and yellow polps