Rubbery red-orange mat with translucent tubes

[Fishbird]

Hi everybody,

What is this red-orange stuff growing on my rock? The rock is aquacultured live rock out of Florida.

The red-orange mat is rubbery/spongy and there are multiple translucent red tubes coming out of it, even though I can only get one to show in this picture. I thought the tubes were tunicates but now I’m not sure since they seem to be part of the same animal as the rubbery mat.

I know I have hair algae. I’m working on that.

 

[El_Guapo13]

Red mat looks like a sponge. Tube... either part of sponge or another critter that just happens to be surrounded by sponge.

 

[Katrina71]

Beautiful sponge

 

[Fishbird]

thanks for your thoughts everybody. It’s hard to show in pictures but there are multiple tubes that come out of the mat and they are often in different places so they really do seem to be part of the same animal but maybe not! I’ll keep watching it!