Long Spine Sea Urchin

I thought I had done plenty of research on urchins that all said they were
reef safe. However, I just recently read that they could be damaging to LPS's
because the spines puncture the soft tissue. How likely is that? Does anyone
else keep LPS's and sea urchins? Has anyone had problems?

I dont think your LPS are in any danger. However, these urchins are like bulldozers and knock lose corals/frags down all the time. They may irritate and cause the corals to close up by touching the corals while moving around in the tank.

I've had a tuxedo and a pincushion and neither ever harmed any LPS. The did knock a few frags down. The pincushion actually got eaten by my carpet anemone.

Another myth.

The spines are terribly sharp and when a spine sinks into my skin it hurts for days, but think about it. If I were an Urchin with all these appendages used for keeping predators away, what good would it be to get my stiff spines stuck in things which restrict my movement. As I felt the presence of a stationary object at the tip of a spine, I would move my entire body to go around it. This is exactly how Urchins behave.

What's cool though, is when they get bumped by something moving at them, they start swaying their spines all around saying, "Here am I. I poke really bad. I can hurt you. Stay away."

Hope this helps.