Urchin in frag tank with egg crate?

[IOnceWasLegend]

So I'm heading into the 'new tank uglies' with my 50g frag tank and trying to figure out a good CUC for them. @Coral reefer was kind enough to give me some baby trochuses (trochii?), and I picked up a few full-sized ones, but I need to build it out a little more.

I know urchins are algae-eating machines, but I also know they like to play dressup with frags. My frags are all on plugs in egg crate, though, so I'm not sure if this would be a good idea or not. Any thoughts?

 

[JVU]

Tuxedo urchins definitely pick up coral including on frag plugs and walk around with them. I think it’s hilarious so I don’t worry too much about it. Mine has been walking around with a very chic outfit of pink diamond zoas for like 3 months; he carried the plug as well for half that time. Pincushions do this too. I consider it a plus personally because it’s interesting.

The urchins with spines longer than their appendages like pencil and longspine urchins don’t do this behavior. I think shortspine urchins also don’t but haven’t had one before.

 

[svreef]

I’d go with some small hermits and Cerith snails to begin with. The latter eat diatoms and Cyano. I wouldn’t get an urchin until you have serious algae.

 

[JBB1217]

Tuxedo urchins definitely pick up coral including on frag plugs and walk around with them. I think it’s hilarious so I don’t worry too much about it. Mine has been walking around with a very chic outfit of pink diamond zoas for like 3 months; he carried the plug as well for half that time. Pincushions do this too. I consider it a plus personally because it’s interesting.

The urchins with spines longer than their appendages like pencil and longspine urchins don’t do this behavior. I think shortspine urchins also don’t but haven’t had one before.

I have had a shortspine urchin for a little while now and it hasn't picked anything up, so if you don't want one that picks up stuff I would go with the shortspine urchin.

 

[gmdcdvm]

Here is my tuxedo urchin wearing his ghillie suit. One time he had a hermit crab on him for three days. If you look closely you can see him underneath the algae, mics rocks, and shells.

 

[jccaclimber]

By black short spines would move a few things, but it wasn't too bad. More pushing things around and getting under them to eat than anything else. The pincushions, tuxedos, and Halloween urchins would go so far as to rip up frags I had glued down if they weren't secure enough.
Turbo snails also have a habit of bulldozing things, including plugs on frag racks.

Even with a lot of empty shells around my hermits always seemed to want to try on my cerith snail shells, and the snail did not survive the eviction. The most frustrating part was when they would pull the snail out, try on the shell, decide they didn't like it, then leave in their original shell. They never seemed to mess with nassarius snails, but that's a snail for a different purpose.