Black long spine urchin suddenly died

Aframereef · Dec 23, 2023

Hi I have a black long spine urchin that suddenly died today. He has been in my tank for 6 months. At first he wasn't doing very well and some of his spines were turning white but after I got my tank parameters in check all of his spines turned black and he started to grow fast. Last few months he looked great. I just added 2 small baby ones last week. When he died all of the spines were completely black. He looked great. I read there has been a parasite going around killing these urchins. Could something have killed him?
Thanks

Ron Reefman · Dec 26, 2023

It's possible. Long spine urchins in the Florida Keys are protected and really just starting to come back from a near extinction. You might google that issue and see if it's similar to your situation.

ISpeakForTheSeas · Dec 30, 2023

Aframereef said:
Hi I have a black long spine urchin that suddenly died today. He has been in my tank for 6 months. At first he wasn't doing very well and some of his spines were turning white but after I got my tank parameters in check all of his spines turned black and he started to grow fast. Last few months he looked great. I just added 2 small baby ones last week. When he died all of the spines were completely black. He looked great. I read there has been a parasite going around killing these urchins. Could something have killed him?
Thanks

If you urchin looked fine in the few days before it died, then it wasn't the parasite that has been going around, as that takes a few days and has noticeable symptoms:

"Gross signs in affected urchins began with detachment from vertical surfaces, loss of spine movement/reaction to stimuli, loss of tube foot control, using spines for locomotion instead of tube feet, and forming a stellate spine arrangement (Fig. 1). Within days, urchins with these signs catastrophically lost spines leading to epidermal tissue loss and exposure of underlying test which progressed rapidly (~2 days) to death (15)."*

Also, the spines turning white with age is actually normal for long spine urchins from what I've read, so I wouldn't assume that's a sign of bad health:

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