Urchins Dying?

[adidas]

hmmm my small urchin is sitting there, all its spines scattered around it and it isn't moving. My big urchin is moving but it too has about 2/3 of its spines missing. whats happening???

[Coldwater]

I think they are almost dead. When mine die they do the exact same thing. They usualy die when about half of their insides are gone.

Matt

[adidas]

Originally Posted by The Moray Guy

I think they are almost dead. When mine die they do the exact same thing. They usualy die when about half of their insides are gone.

Matt

why would they die, the big one i got on monday.

[Beverly]

Originally Posted by adidas

why would they die, the big one i got on monday.

Don't you have ammonia in your tank? How much ammonia did you find today?

[Coldwater]

I have no ammonia in my tank and they still die . I think its because of not having enought to eat or some other weird reson. Or it could be that both of mine decide to walk right into my anemone.

Matt

[adidas]

Originally Posted by Beverly

Don't you have ammonia in your tank? How much ammonia did you find today?

im not sure, one test says its ok, and the other says 0.30ppm. I did find out my salinuty was very low. just did a 45g water change. sad thing, my little unicorn tang is dying, he is in a quarrintine tank but i'm not sure he'll pull through. also, my big powder blue tang is swimming on its side a bit now. I don't know what to do!

[Beverly]

Dang!! Sorry to hear about your troubles

Bring up salinity rather slowly for some reason related to osmotic pressure in the fishes' bodies.

Test your source water for ammonia. I recently found out I have .5 ppm ammonia coming out of our RO/DI unit. Filters were changed yesterday as a result of this finding. If you have ammonia in your new water, use Amquel or Prime to neutralize the ammonia. You can also use it in your tank.

Had two fish deaths the other day. Don't know the exact cause, but could have been because of ammonia levels at .5 ppm for less than 5 hours. I'd be interested to know if the fins on your any fish that die in your tank if the fins are open wide as if they are in full display.

Hope your fish don't die, though.