What is this on my clam.

[thebigfryfry]

Hey everyone I recently purchased a clam and appears to have this weird sponge thing on it . Does anyone know what it is?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

That's either a sponge or a colonial tunicate (I'll take a closer look tomorrow and see if I can't figure out which for sure, but I'm currently leaning toward colonial tunicates).

Any chance of white light pics in the meantime?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Tunicates and should be scraped off carefully. They are filters feeders and so is the clam and clam needs the nutrients

 

[thebigfryfry]

That's either a sponge or a colonial tunicate (I'll take a closer look tomorrow and see if I can't figure out which for sure, but I'm currently leaning toward colonial tunicates).

Any chance of white light pics in the meantime?

Yeah I was thinking that too. It looks to me like a colonial tunicate. Does anyone know the species?

 

[thebigfryfry]

Here is another photo

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Here is another photo

Yeah, I think I'd need a brighter, white-light pic myself. That said, a handful of possible genera come to mind - Aplydium, Botrylloides, Eudistoma, Polycitor, etc.

Some of these should be fine, others (like Botrylloides species) can be extremely invasive - personally, to be safe, I'd get it off the clam and try to put it on an isolated rock so you can easily trim it back and keep it under control as needed.