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Tunicate, urochordate, sea squirt, sea pork??????

The_Codfather

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
For the longest time i thought this was a sponge but im seeing small clear ones popping up all over the place am i right on this ID?
33p8nyv.jpg
 

The_Codfather

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
"If you touch the intake vent and it immediately closes, it’s a tunicate; otherwise it’s a sponge!"
Im going to give it a poke later and report back!
 

panmanmatt

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
That's not always true as sponges have intake syphons too. It looks like sponge to me. I have it in the 37 gallon in my room. They will come and go depending on the nutrient levels in the tank.
 

The_Codfather

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Hey Matt.. All the pics i have seen of sponges don't look nothing like mine..BTW glued the brace last night going to keep the clamp for 24hr plus.. hope it works
 

panmanmatt

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
It's hard to tell from the pic. Could be tunicates but The once I have seen were more rounded than spread out loke that.

Here's to hoping the glue and clamp work. Let me know and we'll come up with something else if need to.
 

The_Codfather

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
what i was reading this morning was yellow tunicates do have them more spread out.. and just my luck i can't find the link right now
 
Are Tunicates good a good thing to have in the tank? I think I have a few. They are red. I have not touched them, but they are in the back, shady part of the tank and if you shine a light on them they close up.
 
IMO this looks like a sponge. I have a similar looking one in my tank, but it is grey.

I used to think it was a tunicate, until I saw tunicates in person, and did some research.

71GTO said:
Are Tunicates good a good thing to have in the tank? I think I have a few. They are red. I have not touched them, but they are in the back, shady part of the tank and if you shine a light on them they close up.

Tunicates are often hard to keep, but that varies by species.

They are not bad to have in the tank, but some of them can filter out a lot of planktonic food in a short period.

If you have other inhabitants relying on the same food, they may lose out in the competition.

Some decent pics of tunicates in link below.

http://www.lexic.us/definition-of/tunicate
 
Some sponges do grow like that. Not all are sponge grow lookin or like a ball or short and stubby. Im pretty sure mine is a sponge and its kinda planty or stringy. Not a look i'd associate with a sponge but i dont know what else it could be. Anyway im tossing that rock today to rearrange a few things, prb turn into a 5 hr project ::), it always does!
 
Cool, it definately looks like that I can't really see two hose things on it like that but there is atleast one.
 
Godfather

That is a rather poor pic and in such pics Haliclonal sponges can look like Diademid Tunicates. More than likely it is a sponge. I have never seen a tunicate that color.


Haliclona sponges
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&resnum=0&q=Haliclona&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi


Didemnid Tunicates
http://images.google.com/images?um=...emnum+&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&start=0




You are correct here

"If you touch the intake vent and it immediately closes, it’s a tunicate; otherwise it’s a sponge!"Im going to give it a poke later and report back!




Matt

That's not always true as sponges have intake syphons too.

Yes, that is ture but sponges do not have "muscles" that can contract the siphon like tunicates can :)
 
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