Urchin identification
 

I purchased the "radiant urchin" in the attached photograph and cannot find any information on them so I'm wondering if they go by a different name or if anyone knows anything about them. Thanks.

Ellie

I'm pretty sure that is a fire urchin. Not sure of the scientific name, but if you google image "fire urchin" the pics look the same as your urchin :biggrin:

I'm also pretty sure its a fire urchin.
Its actually pretty dangerous and should not be keep unless your prepared. Always wear gloves from now on as they have a very very potent sting, worst case scenerio is hospital.

Thanks guys. Definitely looks like a fire urchin now that I've seen pictures of it. I knew that it could sting, not too concerned about that though as it is housed with our dwarf zebra lionfish who also has a nasty sting and moves much faster than the urchin! We've had him for a while now and he's doing great, has grown a lot, I was just curious about other common names as google returned little in response to a "radiant urchin" search.

Ellie

Hey Ellie, did you get the urchin around here? It's pretty cool. What have you noticed it eating? Does it eat coralline like most other urchins? Not much info on the web about them.

Hi Mindy, I got it from Bayside, Colby gets them in quite frequently. It spends most of its time on the glass eating algae, haven't noticed it eating coraline, but we don't have much so I'm not sure I'd notice anyway. It rarely goes on the rocks and it has yet to pick anything up. We feed it mysis occasionally too. It looks even better in person, you'll have to check it out tomorrow.

Ellie

It is very beautiful!