Sea Urchin Eggs or feces????????

[AWestphal]

This afternoon I saw my sea urchin lying in this exact spot where the unknown objects are, ( I have circled them for you). Then he moved directly above them. It is very weird because when "Thorns" is on the front of the tank he is only passing by, never have I seen him sit there like this.

I have a picture of the sea urchin and the eggs/feces.

A picture of just the eggs/feces.

I have never seen the sea urchin do this, I have had him for several months. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

[AWestphal]

Here is the other picture

Thanks

[steve1s]

They are indeed feces. When urchins breed they actually spawn and release eggs/sperm into the water column.

It will not usually come out of the small opening on the back where these came from but rather appear to come from slit openings on the back that run the length of the urchin from the centre.

Cheers
Steve

[Mikeaveli21]

They are indeed feces. When urchins breed they actually spawn and release eggs/sperm into the water column.

It will not usually come out of the small opening on the back where these came from but rather appear to come from slit openings on the back that run the length of the urchin from the centre.

Cheers
Steve

I agree 100%, these are not eggs, so by process of elimination are feces. The eggs are orange in color and diffuse in the water column. I had to do this for a fertilization experiment once, where we injected KCl into the mouth and it would release egg/sperm, that's the only way to differentiate males from females (that I know of at least).

[AWestphal]

Thank you very much. I wasn't sure because it seems like breeding time in the tank. I have an algae blenney who spit out a bunch of eggs a week ago and is about to do it again. Splitting mushrooms, snail babbies. God knows what else. Plus I have never seen these perfectly round brown colored circles before.

I don't know what I did to make these specimens so horny. Esp. the Algae blenny, that is the only one of that kind in the tank. I know they are eggs because I saw where it came from and plus it has a huge belly that goes down after it spits these out. All other fish just love this special treat, infact my Flame Angel and Yellow Tang followed the blenney around the tank for a couple of days, no aggression problems. Finally I think they relized there was no more treat.

But anyway, Happy Reefing