Urchins

steamboatwv · 03-29-2007, 01:37 PM

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to post this thread but I am having problems keeping urchins, I have purchased 2 now and both have passed after 1 day, I dont have any problems with anything else dying only urchins, maybe i'm not acclimating them the way they should be, what is the proper acclimation for them?

my params are:
lighting 4 x 65w pc 2-10k, 2-actinic
2 x 175w MH

nitrates 15ppm --- time for water change this week, so its a little high.. but shouldnt cause instant death lol..
nitrites 0ppm
ph 8.3
calc 400
salinity 1.025

Geoff · 03-29-2007, 10:01 PM

i am betting it is not necessarily your fault. you keep your salinity up where it should be, i am betting your LFS does not. what do you use to test salinity? have you ever tested the salinity of your LFS water? i like to test the water from the bag to see where i stand before acclimation.

most LFS's have their water down near 1.022 or lower. going back up to a higher salinity is tougher on organisms. you will need to acclimate much longer to get them adjusted.

echinoderms are very susceptible to osmotic shock. need extra care when acclimating in general.

G~

steamboatwv · 03-30-2007, 12:46 AM

Yes i have tested the LF's water params, and he keeps his around 1.023, the LF that i go too here is the only one i trust in this area, he sets up large displays for companies, builds them from ground up and has lots of gorgeous tanks, he wont even sell you anything on the day it comes in from delivery he makes you wait 3 days with it on hold to make sure its eating {if fish} and or blooming out properly if its coral. i use a refractometer, i do keep mine a bit higher than his so thats why i was thinking maybe i wasnt acclimating it slow enough, i want to be able to keep a couple of urchins but i dont want to keep killing them. how slow should they be acclimated, how much of my water P/H..

thanks

Geoff · 03-30-2007, 09:33 AM

1.023 to 1.025 is not that bad of a jump. a good hours worth of acclimation should be fine for most echinoderms.

what kind of urchins have you tried?

G~

steamboatwv · 03-30-2007, 01:25 PM

the long spined black ones

XeniaGirl · 03-30-2007, 06:06 PM

that's horrible! I have a fuzzy urchin who is the coolest guy EVER... he picks up empty (or sometimes occupied) hermit crab shells to "shield" himself and boogies around the tank. We dripped him for about 40-50 minutes, never had an issue.
I hope you find a solution!

steamboatwv · 03-30-2007, 08:43 PM

well he has another one up there that he is holding for me, he said its twice the size of the last 2 i got, he said that sometimes the little ones are harder to acclimate and he is going to let me try the bigger one for free, he said if it takes then he will just let me have him since the other 2 didnt make it. so i will try a one hour drip with him and see how he does.
he is a pretty cool guy to deal with

steamboatwv · 04-02-2007, 07:35 PM

ok picked up the new one today, i am in the process of drip acclimating him, going to try do drip him for a little more than an hour, will let you know how it goes...

Geoff · 04-02-2007, 08:54 PM

keep us posted.

G~

steamboatwv · 04-02-2007, 09:32 PM

you were right, the water i have been testing from him was from his coral tanks, the tank he had the urchin in was only 1.020, so that is a very big jump to my tank at 1.025 and that is probably what killed them, he has been in the bucket now for 2 hours and its raised to 1.022 i figured with such a jump i better take is slower than i was expecting so i am doing a 4 hour drip to get it up there to be safe, will let you know more tomorrow.

steamboatwv · 04-03-2007, 06:48 PM

well here is the new one.. he is doing well from what i can tell

did a 5 hour drip to get the saline up.

XeniaGirl · 04-03-2007, 08:17 PM

awwww... I'm so glad you got the problem solved! And at least your LFS was fair... did you tell them what the issue was with their salinity? - I'm curious to see what they'd say in response.
Anyway - YAY for you!

steamboatwv · 04-03-2007, 09:06 PM

well I guess i spoke too soon, he lasted longer than the other 2 but as of 3am this morn he started losing his spines and drooping I dont know if they can recover but i am not going to expect it too. anything that anyone could think of that may also be the problem plz let me know...