Sea Squirt Dying?

[chilake08]

OK so I did my research and figured i'd try my hand a sea squirt.........a bit of a challenge. But while I knew what to do about keeping it, I didn't know what it looks like if its dead or dying.

Essentially I just got the squirt shipped in and the water in the bag was pretty foul (smell and color). I went through the acclimation process that I do, and put it in the tank (never touched the air). Currently it doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot of anything. Not that they are supposed to jump around, but I figured they should react to light changes or large water movement and "squirt". But its not, and a large part of its base has turned black.

I don't know if the bad bag was from it dying or a little bit of fouling of the rock it was on. And I don't know if its unresponsiveness is from it being dead/dying or just shock from being moved and acclimated. I'd just really like to figure this out before it really does die in my tank and release a whole bunch of noxious chemicals.

 

[Almenmarine]

Do you have a QT? If they are anything like any other cucumber they might nuke your tank with a nasty toxin.

 

[chilake08]

Well the aren't related to the cucumber family so i'm not worried about them releasing toxins. But I did run across some posts on wetwebmedia.com about them saying that when they die they become noxious. So I think its just them releasing normal crap in their body. But its hard to tell when sessile invertebrates are dying.

 

[SDguy]

Well the aren't related to the cucumber family so i'm not worried about them releasing toxins.

From what I was told by Ron Schimek about the large yellow/purple kinds, they are filled with some pretty nasty chemicals, so I'd be careful.

 

[greenbean36191]

Yeah, sea squirts tend to have some pretty nasty defensive compounds (as do most non-shelled, sessile inverts), so they aren't something you really want dying in your tank. Based on the lack of response and the description of the shipping bag it sounds like these are pretty much done. Even during acclimation there should be a contractile response to changes in light or tactile stimulation.

 

[chilake08]

Thats what I figured. Without the contractile response I figured they were dead. I'll give it one more test when I get home, and if thats a no-go they are coming out of my tank ASAP. $20 something dollars in a sea squirt is not even close to risking the tank as a whole.