I'm a daddy...I think

[DisturbedReefer]

One of my Long Spine Urchins spawns on a pretty regular basis. I have two good sized urchins (both Long Spined). The other day I was looking in the tank while feeding my PBT and spotted this little guy. He is only about a 1/4" diameter and not black yet but I'm pretty confident he is the spawn of the two in the tank. Let me know what you think of the possibilities. One of the Long Spined came to me pretty small and he/she had stripes on the spines and as it grew the spines turned all black. Here is a shot of the little one...

 

[liveforphysics]

That is so amazing!!! This sort of thing is a by part of why I love having reef tanks, you never know what sort of little suprizes you find.

Very cool man! Congratulations on being a father

 

[bc_slc]

Great news and a great pic.

Mat

 

[nasher8860]

thats rad...

 

[Krish]

That's cool Todd! I thought some girl had a baby and you guys were going on Maury to see if it was yours:lol: Congrats!

 

[NaH2O]

Tagging along to follow the growth....it looks like it could be different than a long spined. The white rings at the base of the spines make me think of rock boring urchins.

Spawns can sometimes result in babies, as my tiger trochus have had mass spawnings on two occasions, and both times I've watched teeny tiger trochus snails grow into medium sized tiger trochus.

 

[DisturbedReefer]

Tagging along to follow the growth....it looks like it could be different than a long spined. The white rings at the base of the spines make me think of rock boring urchins.

Spawns can sometimes result in babies, as my tiger trochus have had mass spawnings on two occasions, and both times I've watched teeny tiger trochus snails grow into medium sized tiger trochus.

I had the same thoughts about the white rings at the bases, that's why I was asking for opinions Nikki. Thanks everyone for your comments! I do hope it is a long spine and not a rock boring. There is the small chance that it was a hitch hiker on one of my newer corals. Time will tell I quess. Picture is compliments of bigt...Thanks!

 

[Boomer]

Nikki is correct it is a boring urchin more than likley one of the Echinomerta sp The white ring at the base of the spine kinda gives it away. Getting an urchin to spawn is not much of task but to actually get a youg living urhcin, from that spawn, in a reef tank, is about next to impossible Urchin larve die reallllllllly easy and are often used as water quality indicators in lab research.

 

[NaH2O]

Urchin larve die reallllllllly easy and are often used as water quality indicators in lab research.

For sure I'd never get urchin larvae to live.....I use IO salt lolol

 

[mojoreef]

Well I figure their spawning and growing in my tank. That or I had a ton of them come in as hitchhikers. I figure I have pulled out about 2 a month for the last two years.


Mike