Collector Urchin

Care Summary

The Collector Urchin is a chunky, personable urchin named for its charming habit of picking up shells, rubble, and bits of algae and wearing them like a hat, which makes it endlessly entertaining to watch. It is a voracious algae eater and one of the best natural grazers you can add to a reef with nuisance algae problems, handling everything from hair algae to turf algae with enthusiasm. Because it eats so aggressively, it can strip a tank of all available algae quickly, at which point you need to supplement with dried seaweed sheets or nori to keep it from going hungry. Provide plenty of open substrate for roaming and keep the tank covered since this species, like many urchins, will attempt to climb out given the opportunity.