Red tuxedo urchin in a 5g-10g pico

[monkeypie102]

So right now I have a 5g pico I may upgrade to a 10g tonight... My question is would a red tuxedo urchin be fine in one of those two tanks? I have an algae issue and I sadly can't rely on snails as my crown conch eats them... I figured with supplemental feedings it should be fine or I could grow the algae in a seperate tank and switch rocks around as needed... Thoughts or ideas?

[Nina51]

i had a tuxedo urchin living in my 14g cube for many months (transferred him to my 29g). you can supplement with algae sheets. i rubber band little pieces to a chunk of rock and put it on the sand bed. he always finds it and stays there till it's completely gone, sometimes for several hours!

[Calappidae]

You'd be better off seperating the conch, added emerald crabs or snails or anything for algae control, then when the problem is solved add it back. I used a tooth brush to control my hair algae :hammer:

Urchins will be extremely slow with the job if I'm correct.

[monkeypie102]

Actually my blue legged hermit and my new Aestrea(spelling) starfish are doing an awesome job :)

[Calappidae]

Actually my blue legged hermit and my new Aestrea(spelling) starfish are doing an awesome job :)

"Asterina?" If its Asterina they are highly invasive and multiply like rabbits. Some are harmless, some aren't.. its a hit or miss

If you need rid of them, Harlequin shrimp are best option. I have harlys and feed them frozen starfish legs every few days along with like 4 asterina I purposly put in the tank :hmm5:

[monkeypie102]

So far I haven't seen a huge population growth so I'm not to worried but yeah I've been told of the shrimp before so I'll keep them in mind ;)

[Ken Hahn]

If your Asterina are staying on the glass or the algae and not on your corals, they are probably the safe variety. In a 10 gallon, it shouldn't be too hard to keep an eye on them and prune if necessary.

[Calappidae]

Some asterina are worse than others and its best to just get rid of them before a possible bad problem occurs.

I personally freeze starfish, and give my harlys a leg every time I see them walking around hunting. Also up at my Local library one of my friends donated a 75 gallon saltwater tank with reef safe asterinas in it. Occasionly I'll supplement their diet with an asterina.