The Frag That Keeps On Giving...

[loneboat]

I bought this frag a few weeks ago for $15, thinking that I was just getting a small clump of zoa. Since then, I have found all kinds of other stuff on it as well. Now I think I may have found yet ANOTHER surprise. First, a review of everything we've found so far:

First I found a tiny coral of a separate species. Some folks helped me ID it as either alveopora or gonipora.

I managed to frag it off into a separate piece, and it's been happy on its own ever since.

Then we found a small crustacean, which someone helped me to ID as an amphipod.

Next we noticed a bunch of mini feather dusters:

Finally, we found some sort of spongey thing (maybe an actual sponge?) on the back side (no positive ID on this yet, but looks cool).

Now I think I've found one more surprise on this thing. I was doing a target feeding of the zoas, when I noticed a large chunk of the whole thing "spasm" all at once. At first I thought I imagined it, but I had my daughter watch the next time I fed them, and managed to get a video. On looking closer, we noticed an open "port" where it looks like it's drawing water in. We also noticed shortly afterwards a "plume" of junk shot out of the top of the whole thing. Here are some pics to show you what I mean:

The circle on the right is the open "port" which looks like it's sucking water in. The circle on top is where we saw stuff come out of the top.

Here is a view from directly above, showing the hole on top where I suspect it was coming out.

Another shot with different lighting:

I managed to capture a couple of videos of the jerking motion (which happens whenever we get food close to it), although these times we didn't see anything shoot out the top (although maybe to the left? That could have been the crab which is in-frame, too):



Any ideas on what this could be? I've been googling, and have run across the term "sea squirt". Maybe something in this suborder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aplousobranchia

Thanks for looking!

 

[BloopFish]

It kind of does look like a sea squirt from the picture you posted. I can't seem to tell from the video though, so you might have to do some observations on your own. Most sea squirts do a pumping motion, they'll widen their mouth and start partially closing it. If you see this behavior it is very likely to be a sea squirt.

 

[loneboat]

Most sea squirts do a pumping motion, they'll widen their mouth and start partially closing it. If you see this behavior it is very likely to be a sea squirt.

You mean like doing that continuously? How frequently? Like every few seconds, or slower, over the course of minutes? (Just so I know what to watch for.)

 

[BloopFish]

You mean like doing that continuously? How frequently? Like every few seconds, or slower, over the course of minutes? (Just so I know what to watch for.)

Most sea squirts squirt occasionally and some do it slightly more often.They should also close up when a stimulus is nearby like a unknown movement or if food comes nearby. Click the links for video examples.

 

[Infidel]

It definitely seems like some sort of tunicate where everything else is growing on it.

By the way... great thread title.