ID the coral in the photo - Never seen before

[CoolUsername]

I got this little hitchhiker on some live rock I purchased locally and can't figure out what it is. It was hard to the touch. The little veins have been opening up in the last two months and it has grown in size a little. Anyone know what this is?

 

[Sk8r]

Very neat creature. In some regards it resembles a sponge, the open pores, etc. If you want sponge to grow, feed phyto.

 

[MorandiWine]

looks like a sponge to me

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

I too say sponge.

 

[calero]

i believed is a tunicate, lots of them came with the live rock.

 

[CoolUsername]

Thanks for the replies! I have been feeding phyto. Hopefully it'll grow nicely...

 

[wentreefgirl]

Its a tunicate. A filter feeder so phyto should be fine.

 

[oddballs]

if you touch it and it moves or contracts its a tunicate.if it does not move then its a sponge.thats a really simple way to tell them apart!

 

[MarineFiend]

Hmmm...tunicate I disagree there, I read over this site

View this just in case I didn't see anything in here that was remotly close. But then again this site coud be wrong.

I would say that it is closer to a sponge. I have a yellow sponge in my systems that is almost the same. It is very small but that is my opinion.

 

[CoolUsername]

It doesn't move at all when I touch it. It feels very hard. The body does not give at all. It doesn't feel slimy either. I noticed this when I picked up this rock when aquacaping. I hadn't noticed this little guy (it's about 2" across at the longes side) on the rock and put my finger right on it.

 

[CoolUsername]

The veins or pores - as someone called them - when I first looked at the rock were quite a bit more closed. Since I have added it to my new reef setup, the pores/veins have been opening up about 3x what they were at first.

 

[wentreefgirl]

Its a sponge then. I have a purple encrusting one and a blue one and a yellow one. I also have a few tunicates also.

 

[oddballs]

like i said if you touch it and it does not move sponge.if it moves or contracts tunicate.there are encrusting tunicates that look alot like sponges!

 

[justincognito]

mos def a sponge

 

[tld]

I agree with oddballs - encrusting tunicate

 

[BlennyBabe]

Another easy way to tell tunicates apart from sponges is by looking at the pores. Tunicates will always have a pair of holes for each tunicate. Typically one a little larger than the other. They do move when touched and are more closely related to vertebrates than invertebrates (very cool)
You have a sponge there. Good luck keeping it alive, they can be quite touchy or they can take over your whole tank. I have several different kinds and most of them are growing in the dark. The light causes algae to grow on them clog their pores.

Good luck!

 

[xdusty6920]

its a sponge. i have several massive colonys that have been around for years. cant tell from your pick but mine are an orangish color and came in on florida rock