I have a reef tank. In it is a tuxedo urchin. Mine has these hats as well - it’s fairly common amongst us hobbyists, and yes it’s always funny.
Urchins are fantastic and voracious algae eaters. They like to shade themselves from the lights and camouflage themselves. They pick up EVERYTHING. If it’s not glued down, the urchin will be wearing it as a hat eventually. Even if it IS superglued down, there’s a good chance they’ll rip it up and wear it as a hat.
My urchin carried a hermit crab around for days. Poor crab was like “hey man put me down!” He didn’t - a few days later the hermit crab moved to a new shell.
My urchin is one of, if not my most favorite tank inhabitant.
That’s absolutely hilarious, I never knew they were so relentless to cover themselves. Thanks for the great story!
As asked below - pictures of my urchin wearing his hats!
This is awesome - what other things could be made?
A crown fit for a tiny king would be cool. Or something that adds a face and googly eyes
Mine has a traffic cone he likes to wear. That’s my favorite as it’s usually crooked and makes it even more ridiculous :)
I need pictures STAT!
Here you go! Lots of urchin hats! Enjoy!
I love it!! Thanks so much for the fun pictures!
I like the bubble algae hat - looks like a bad toupee :)
Sometimes he rips up strips of hair algae and it looks like a green Mohawk :)
Sometimes he rips up my corals and uses them as hats - that’s not funny. It’s annoying :/
I love him rocking four hats at once!
A hat shaped like a tiny sea urchin, who is wearing an even smaller hat.
You can put hats on sea urchins in aquariums in Stardew Valley too!
My moneys on the viking.
Very dapper gentleman in the top right pic
Maybe a bowler or a fedora? My thoughts.
Very cute.
That is too freaking cute
I don’t know much about 3d printer filaments, but wouldn’t that increase the plastic pollution of the water?
There is a special coating that you put on decorations not meant for aquariums that will prevent any chemicals from leaking into the water.
huh, TIL
Not much. Unless the aquarium is outside, plastic is quite stable.
Sherlock Holmes- style deerstalker should be a thing for sea urchins.
What’s up with the messed up colors in that image?
Strong blue lights for a reef tank. Overpowers camera lenses - very tough to get good pictures.
I’ve seen a lot of such salt water tank pics and never seen this particular blend of horrible, so I’m going with the jpeg theory.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.684330/full
Urchin friendly lighting plus more .jpeg.
Sea haw! I’m the Shereef’s here so ye better not be surchin for sum trouble!
