i recently bought a sea urchin as a new edition to my salt water tank but we noticed while transfering the urchin that it has a shrimp mimicing one of its spines. is this normal ?
2007-03-09 14:08:47 · 5 answers · asked by kausion00 1 in Pets ➔ Fish
the sea urchin is brown and white and the shrimp also has the same markings. strange indeed. my buddy whos been doing salt tanks for 40yrs told me hes never seen anything like this
2007-03-09 16:01:47 · update #1
its a hatpin or banded sea urchin. I'll take a photo as soon as i can get my camera back so i can show you how the shrimp closely resembles the urchins spines. even with removal of the urchin to my tank the shrimp never left it. strange indeed
2007-03-09 18:30:31 · update #2
my tank contains 1 purple tang, 1 lunar wrasse, 2 yellowtail blue damselfish, 1 south seas devil damselfish, 1 flame angelfish, 2 florida condi anemones, 1 hatpin sea urchin with mimic shrimp, serpent starfish, turbo snails, emerald crab, hermit crabs, feather duster. and some soft corals. ill try to get a pic up soon
2007-03-10 07:43:39 · update #3
Sounds like you got a cool little bonus there.
MM
2007-03-09 15:39:06 · answer #1 · answered by magicman116 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is very common for ocean fish to mimic a form of coral, sponge, fish or twig for survival and feeding purposes.
What kind of Urchin do you have? You do realize some Urchins will eat shrimp, crabs, starfish, coralline algae and some corals. This could be a way the shrimp thinks it is protecting itself. What the shrimp doesn't know is Urchins will also eat other urchins!
A picture would be really cool!
2007-03-10 10:49:05 · answer #2 · answered by danielle Z 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've been keeping salt for 8 yrs. and never saw anything like this. What kind of urchin? Maybe you could post a photo of the urchin & shrimp sometime!
2007-03-10 00:15:11 · answer #3 · answered by copperhead 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
do you have predators in the tank?it is prob trying to hide.
2007-03-10 07:56:55 · answer #4 · answered by Reptile Lover 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no
2007-03-09 22:16:02 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋