I have a reef tank. In it is a tuxedo urchin. Mine has these hats as well - it’s fairly common amongst us hobbyists, and yes it’s always funny.
Urchins are fantastic and voracious algae eaters. They like to shade themselves from the lights and camouflage themselves. They pick up EVERYTHING. If it’s not glued down, the urchin will be wearing it as a hat eventually. Even if it IS superglued down, there’s a good chance they’ll rip it up and wear it as a hat.
My urchin carried a hermit crab around for days. Poor crab was like “hey man put me down!” He didn’t - a few days later the hermit crab moved to a new shell.
My urchin is one of, if not my most favorite tank inhabitant.
That’s absolutely hilarious, I never knew they were so relentless to cover themselves. Thanks for the great story!
As asked below - pictures of my urchin wearing his hats!
Adorable! Thanks so much for sharing.
Since there’s no community in lemmy, I have some questions. Do you have a freshwater or saltwater tank? Would you recommend it? How much maintenance or upkeep do you do?
Those my friend are some loaded questions! :)
But I’m happy to answer. In my opinion there are three types of tanks. Freshwater, saltwater with just fish (often called FOWLR - fish only with live rock), and a reef tank (has corals).
My tank is a reef tank. Freshwater and fish only saltwater tanks are cake. Mixing saltwater being the main difference. Corals add probably 2 or three orders of magnitude in challenge, knowledge, required maintenance, and money. Some corals are pretty forgiving and easy to keep, others are downright difficult.
My tank is a small one - 20G. Small tanks are less $, but in my opinion they are extremely hard. Everything about keeping corals is about stability - fish tolerate wide ranges of water parameters, but some corals die overnight if the temp rises a degree, or salinity moves just a bit, etc. Nanos are hard because of the small water volume, one drop of something in my tank moves the needle - one drop in a 200G tank is undetectable. On the plus side, I can “fix” a problem with a large water change (I can mix 20G of water, I can’t mix 400G).
I spend about one half hour per week doing water changes, scrubbing, and doing maintenance. I’ve gotten good at it, when I first started I probably spent 5ish hours a week. It’s worth noting I’ve spent considerable effort building mixing stations and creating a system to do maintenance quickly.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely-as long as you have a few things:
- You REALLY like saltwater fish and corals - like you don’t get bored of looking at the same fish for coral for 30 years (because that’s how long they live)
- You are willing to commit to learning a lot first. If you just do it without learning, you’ll fail. I recommend watching the BRS 52 weeks of reefing on YouTube.
- You have the time and desire to do the maintenance-bigger tanks take more time than mine.
I’ve always wanted a reef tank. I could watch it all day long everyday. Long ago, I realized the $ and commitment required, and backed off because I wasn’t ready. As I got older with more disposable cash, I took the plunge and I’m super happy I did. But it’s been the hardest hobby I’ve ever tried to be successful at and at times it’s been heartbreaking. But I think I’ve figured it all out at this point, and I’d encourage anyone who has the fascination for these animals to take the plunge-it’s worth it if you enjoy these creatures.
Thanks so much!
This is awesome - what other things could be made?
A crown fit for a tiny king would be cool. Or something that adds a face and googly eyes
Mine has a traffic cone he likes to wear. That’s my favorite as it’s usually crooked and makes it even more ridiculous :)
I need pictures STAT!
Here you go! Lots of urchin hats! Enjoy!
I love it!! Thanks so much for the fun pictures!
I like the bubble algae hat - looks like a bad toupee :)
Sometimes he rips up strips of hair algae and it looks like a green Mohawk :)
Sometimes he rips up my corals and uses them as hats - that’s not funny. It’s annoying :/
I love him rocking four hats at once!
A hat shaped like a tiny sea urchin, who is wearing an even smaller hat.
You can put hats on sea urchins in aquariums in Stardew Valley too!
My moneys on the viking.
Very dapper gentleman in the top right pic
How do they put them on in the first place? Cute AF though.
In between the rows of spines are dozens of little noodle things with a sucker at the end, they use them to grab on to food or hats
-Mr. ArmoredThirteen
That is too freaking cute
Maybe a bowler or a fedora? My thoughts.
Very cute.
I don’t know much about 3d printer filaments, but wouldn’t that increase the plastic pollution of the water?
There is a special coating that you put on decorations not meant for aquariums that will prevent any chemicals from leaking into the water.
huh, TIL
Not much. Unless the aquarium is outside, plastic is quite stable.
This was in an aquarium.
yes and? Isn’t the health of it’s inhabitants important as well?
Plastic is pretty stable. Since this is an aquarium it isn’t get direct sunlight at a rate to make the plastic degrade to the point of polluting the water.
Also, since it’s an aquarium, the are already many kinds of plastics involved. The pumps, tubing, filters, and so on all contain plastic that would have a heater likelihood of degrade sure to mechanical action.
that does make sense, though I just assumed that those would be made with proper precautions/use suitable plastics
wasn’t sure whether 3d printed filament is on the same lvl in terms of that, hence my original comment
Reef tank owner here. People who make these use a type of plastic known to not degrade and become an issue. All is good!
Most plastic (not all, but most) is good to go. It’s metal you have to worry about. Or lotion on people’s hands / makeup.
If something is bad for a reef tank, you usually find out pretty quick with quick deaths. The ocean doesn’t tolerate contamination or fluctuations of anything - it likes things very stable…
I vote for sea urchins to be added as hats to Team Fortress 2
That would make heads recursive.
What’s up with the messed up colors in that image?
Strong blue lights for a reef tank. Overpowers camera lenses - very tough to get good pictures.
I’ve seen a lot of such salt water tank pics and never seen this particular blend of horrible, so I’m going with the jpeg theory.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.684330/full
Urchin friendly lighting plus more .jpeg.
Sherlock Holmes- style deerstalker should be a thing for sea urchins.
Sea haw! I’m the Shereef’s here so ye better not be surchin for sum trouble!
