Pincushion urchin help!

S

satyra

Today we noticed that my pin cushion urchin started spewing out this white milky looking stuff. Shortly before this happened, we had seen my bannerfish kinda nibbling on some of his spines (trying to, anyway). Nothing major, that fish gently nibbles on random stuff throughout the day. Do you think it could be a spawning event, or a defense mechanism from the bannerfish nibbling on some of his spines? If it is a spawning event, do i need to do a water change now, or should i wait a while, sometime after hes done? Theres nothing i can test for that would make me think the urchin is sick, and he has not lost any spines or been lethargic. He roams the tank alot and has been doing a good job cleaning off my rocks. parameters are as follows:

SG - 1.025
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - <5ppm
ca - ~480
phos - undetectable using API kit (i know, not very accurate AT ALL....)
ph - 8.0-8.1
temp - ~77-78
system volume - ~85-90gal

thanks for any advice!
 
It is more than likely a spawning event and the water should clear up in a few hours. You may want to do a water change and run some carbon. Our urchin's have done the same thing in the past.
 
Ok thanks, I think he's done with the white stuff for now. I haven't had him too long and urchins are new to me, so I worry that I might not be doing something right.

I did just get in some rox carbon for the first time today and I'm anxious to see what it can do :D I have not seen my pencil urchin spew out the white stuff, do those guys spew out white stuff sometimes too?

One more q, is this a once in a while thing, or do they some times do this pretty regularly?
 
@satyra wrote:
Ok thanks said:
Here are some pictures taken several years ago of our urchin's spawning.

Here is the male
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Male and female together, she is broadcasting eggs and he is releasing sperm.
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By the way I move your post to the Reef Discussion since it is not an emergency.
Click to expand...
 
yep, that's exactly what it looked like, guess mine is a male. Thanks for the pics ;)

Sorry about that, I wasn't sure if I needed to do a wc immediately or not, I didn't wanna wake up to a tank full of dead fish. Thanks for the help!
 
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