Urchin Help!!!!

[TheKid]

I bought a long spined urchin yesterday and while I was acclimating the the temp and was about to drip but the bag fell in to the water. So I added the urchin in. This morning he is still alive but his eye thing is deflated and his spines are little bit pale. Will he be ok??

[Delphinus]

They eye thing is actually his butt. In and of itself, it being deflated is not a sign of trouble, it comes and goes.

Pale needles is weird, I didn't think they changed colour so much, not sure what that can mean. If it is really stressed it will drop needles but if it recovers they will regrow. If it dies you'll know because all the needles will be off and the shell part will be mostly empty anyhow by the time you notice that.

Urchins are pretty sensitive to changes though and generally require a gentle and slow acclimation so it's a good bet he is in recovery mode from being dropped in. However there's not really much you can do at this point except leave him be and hope for the best. It could take a couple of days before he's running around.

I'm sure he'll be OK. Good luck!

[Marlin65]

Is your calcium okay? I picked one up from someone that had a very low CA tank and it's spines were white and very short. It is fine now but that might be why its spines are white.

[TheKid]

I don't know what my calcium level is as I don't have a test for it