Natures way of thinning a reef

Checked out the tank this morning and apparently my longspined urchin decided he wanted less encrusting monti around. 

One creatures waste is anothers food... Vermetids feeding after urchin moved on

 

I plan on keeping an urchin, I may swap him out for a smaller one with less of an apitite overall as mine has gotten pretty big. Even though he took out a good section I stll have plenty left, there is more on the other side of that rock. I figure things like this happen daily in the ocean and I prefer to have as much diversity as I can. Some would also worry about the Vermetid snails hosting in the corals but I figure wild colonies always have various forms of life sharing real estate. It makes things more interesting to watch.


Just figured I would post something different today.

 

Troy,

The purple monti is a wild colony I got awhile back, pretty much the purple haze monti. The cap is a Strawberry Patch and the last pic is another wild colony that I got, it's a M. Nodosa I believe