Tunicate? Eggish shaped growing around zoas.

Zwogle · Jun 27, 2016

Hey ya'll, so I saw these start to grow on one of the zoa frag pieces, they grow in line and have been reproducing rapidly. I have seen them breath/exhale or filter. I'm not sure if they are some form of Tunicate. The second highlighted picture there appears to be some sort of membrane growing also. Any help or advise would be great, should I try to dip it or scrape them off, worried that they are overcrowding the zoas!

Lionfish Lair · Jun 27, 2016

Those are crazy awesome tunicates. The white would just be another type of tunicate. It's hard to see, but I do see siphons on that one too. It's gorgeous.

Zwogle · Jun 27, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
Those are crazy awesome tunicates. The white would just be another type of tunicate. It's hard to see, but I do see siphons on that one too. It's gorgeous.

Cool, thanks! so just let them do their thing? will they affect the zoa at all?

Lionfish Lair · Jun 27, 2016

You can tell it's crowding the zoa a little, but traditionally tunicates do not do well long-term in our tanks. I would totally leave the gorgeous beast and only mess with it, if it's clearly going over the zoa. It's fine touching it, as it has no sting or irritating behaviour.

Lionfish Lair · Jun 27, 2016

I see yet another variety of tunicate... left side, half way down. That clear one is not the same as the yellow ringed.

Kungpaoshizi · Jun 27, 2016

Kinda looks the same off-blue/gray as some sponges, pics not too focused though..(the left side halfway down)
I agree though, definitely awesome looking tunicates!

Lionfish Lair · Jun 27, 2016

The left side is definitely a tunicate. I'm 100% certain on that. The far left.... at the edge of the picture, not what's touching the pink outline they drew.

Zwogle · Jun 27, 2016

This?

Lionfish Lair said:
The left side is definitely a tunicate. I'm 100% certain on that. The far left.... at the edge of the picture, not what's touching the pink outline they drew.

This?

Lionfish Lair · Jun 27, 2016

Yes, that's a tunicate.

Lionfish Lair · Jun 28, 2016

I just saw a picture where the tunicate much like yours, overtook the zoanthids a little.

Roboson · Jun 28, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
I just saw a picture where the tunicate much like yours, overtook the zoanthids a little.

From what I've gathered, most people can't even get tunicates to survive, but someone has discovered a species that reproduces and grows fast enough to crowd out Zoas? That's crazy.

Lionfish Lair · Jun 28, 2016

They starve in many people tanks. I had a tunicate tank once and that was because I was a rep for phytoplankton and has access to tonnes of free and interesting varieties. I would pour loads of it in the tank.

Zwogle · Jul 1, 2016

Here is how it looks a couple days later.

Lionfish Lair · Jul 1, 2016

Huh! Well, that's probably not a good thing. Could it be that all the individual siphons were disturbed and deflated? That's like the common mat, you're seeing there. The base. :-(

Zwogle · Jul 1, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
Huh! Well, that's probably not a good thing. Could it be that all the individual siphons were disturbed and deflated? That's like the common mat, you're seeing there. The base. :-(

Hmm, i'm not sure what "common mat" means, I'll keep my eye on it though

Lionfish Lair · Jul 1, 2016

You see all that gray and black "animal print pattern" in between the individual siphons in the top pictures? That a part of the tunicate as well. That's like the common vascular system or mat that sits underneath the individual siphons. I have drawings that show this. BRB.

Lionfish Lair · Jul 1, 2016

That whole thing is a tunicate.The yellow parts are little clusters of individual intake siphons that gather around a common exist. The whole thing, is the entire colony... the black and white and all.

Lionfish Lair · Jul 1, 2016

You can see there's like a gelatinous mat or "matrix" underneath all the little white clusters. That's one big organism. Yours just happen to be a cool silver/black pattern.