sea urchins

[nicodemus]

I know next to nothing about fish tanks. A friend talked me into having
one. It is a marine tank set up with live rock, live sand, 1 large
clown fish (black and yellow), 3 black & white striped fish, 2 nemos,
an orang,white and black wrasser, an elecric blue (damsel?) and a sea
urchin. The large black and yellow clown and blue fish have been in the
tank now for almost a year. Everything has been great until about 4
months ago when my friend brought me the sea urchin. Within weeks I
couldnt find my favorite shrimp that I had had for five months, a
yellow wrasser had disappeared also and this morning I found the sea
urchin dining on one of my black and white striped clown fish. Last
night when I checked the tank they were all healthy. My friend said the
sea urchin only eats dead fish but my shrimp, my yellow wrasser and the
black and white clown fish never at any time showed signs of sickness.
This is the first time I actually caught the urchin dining on the fish.
Is he the culprit or could there be another also?

I dont want to lose any more as I have sort of grown attached to them.

nicodemus

[Billy]

Urchins are scavengers and opportunistic feeders. Something else
killed the fish and the urchin grabbed an easy meal. Post again with
temp, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, phosphorus, salinity and calcium if
possible. Also tell us about your filtration and water change
schedule. The more info we have, the more we can help!!!



billy

--
¼á
"nicodemus" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I know next to nothing about fish tanks. A friend talked me into
>having
> one. It is a marine tank set up with live rock, live sand, 1 large
> clown fish (black and yellow), 3 black & white striped fish, 2
> nemos,
> an orang,white and black wrasser, an elecric blue (damsel?) and a
> sea
> urchin. The large black and yellow clown and blue fish have been in
> the
> tank now for almost a year. Everything has been great until about 4
> months ago when my friend brought me the sea urchin. Within weeks I
> couldnt find my favorite shrimp that I had had for five months, a
> yellow wrasser had disappeared also and this morning I found the
> sea
> urchin dining on one of my black and white striped clown fish. Last
> night when I checked the tank they were all healthy. My friend said
> the
> sea urchin only eats dead fish but my shrimp, my yellow wrasser and
> the
> black and white clown fish never at any time showed signs of
> sickness.
> This is the first time I actually caught the urchin dining on the
> fish.
> Is he the culprit or could there be another also?
>
> I dont want to lose any more as I have sort of grown attached to
> them.
>
> nicodemus
>

[nicodemus]

Thank you for you reply. Please excuse my ignorance about these things
but I have no idea how to get this information. Is a water testing kit
that can be purchased that will give all this information? I live in
Jakarta and I dont know how advanced they are with these things. The
tank is 60 litres, has quite a bit of rock in it with a filtering
system consisting of an external motor, a unit that appears to pump air
through a tube into a plastic cylinder with a ball in bottom that
generates air bubbles into the water. I assume this is a filter. The
tank walls are cleaned daily. I clean the filter unit about once a
fortnight, usually as soon as I see it getting dirty. The water is part
changed about once a month although over Christmas it went about two
months because there was no suitable water. I use two lights. A purple
and a flourescent.
The tank seems to be clean and bright and the fish pretty energetic. I
have two anenomes, a coral and three pipe plants. These are all very
healthy. Sometimes I have trouble with red algae and have to take the
rocks out and clean them.

Thank you for your help.
Nicodemus