Help identify my latest find in the tank! -AWESOME!

**Reef_Angel** · 08-12-2005, 02:03 PM

Check out my latest find in our tank! Does anyone have any idea what this could possible be? The red shiny jewel like sphere is attached to the rock similar to the way a wasp nest hangs, or cocoon. There's a tinier partial one that is either just developing or has been broken, right next to it in the picture. As you can see, there is a gray mat covering the rock, and there are little rubbery finger like protrusions. The gray rubbery mat extends around to the back of this rock as well. It reminds me of the skin of a manta ray. *I got to pet one once when I was little at an Aquarium* When we were photographing it, we didn't want to disturb it to much since the red jewel sphere looks as delicate as crystal, and we wanted to keep it underwater. The red color on the sphere has a swirled appearance - beautiful!! There's a little yellow sponge attacked just above it, but other than that the only thing on the rock is a patch of pink star polyps. This rock has been in our tank since we set up our reef, and it was nothing special.
I hope someone knows something about this mystery!

**Reptoreef** · 08-12-2005, 09:00 PM

WOW!!! Tunicate, maybe????

**davejnz** · 08-12-2005, 10:05 PM

Can you get a pic in better focus?I've seen some red macro sprout out of LR but not how you describe your hitchiker.What is the texture like when you touch it?

**Reef_Angel** · 08-12-2005, 10:07 PM

I don't know if that's a good thing or not! I've read that tunicates will sting, and may be a nuisance. Do you know anything about that Repto? The fish, especially my Sailfin Tang wants to eat it real bad! I hope it doesn't hurt whoever munches the pretty red part. She practically attacked me when I was looking at it. Snails are real attracted to that area also. When we looked at it tonight, there were baby snails sitting underneath the sphere like as if it was an umbrella. There were 20+ nassarius snail crowding around that one rock. They seemed to be attracted to that rock this evening. There's always something interesting to find in the tank. One day some kind of wicked little sea monster will come out from under a rock and bite my fingers off! hahaha It just amazes me the things that just appear.

**Reef_Angel** · 08-12-2005, 10:28 PM

It's very delicate and feels smooth like glass. This doesn't appear to have grown out of the rock. In a way it looks like something put it there. It's got a cone shape when you look at it from the bottom. The best way I can describe it is like a thin stem...the stem alone looks like what a wasp nest would hang from. I'll try to get a better shot tomorrow if it's still there. There were two of them, but on is cracked and there's not much left of it. I'm not feeling good tonight, so I'll get more pics and such tomorrow.

**Reef_Angel** · 08-12-2005, 10:32 PM

Blown glass...that's what it's like.

**Whoyah** · 08-13-2005, 12:00 AM

#ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#It kind of reminds me of the giant bubble algae I have in my tank except mine are deep green. They are very shiny, smooth and hard. They are attached by one single point Maybe just a different color. #ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl#

**dakar** · 08-13-2005, 10:30 AM

Well thanks to Repto for bringing about the Trunicates name itself I've been able to ID something I've been watching in my 20g refuge for months now.... Got a sea squirt colony (Didemnum sp.) that has taken over one corner from top to bottom, figured it was a sponge of some sort but grows really fast. Cool.... i think.

**Reef_Angel** · 08-13-2005, 05:14 PM

From some of the reading I've been doing, I am going to see if there's enough of it left there to photograph again from different angles, and try to get more of the details of the rest of the mat and the appendages that are shaped like flippers. I don't know if anyone can really make all of the detail I tried to get in the picture. The red part is very interesting, but there's much more to this. I've got a few different research institutes that i'm going to email it to also. Repto's suggestion of it being a Tunicate is the closest from what I've read. They are quite mysterious creatures and I'd like to see what they would tell me about it too! I think it would be cool to even get a response from one of them. That's just me though...I know some might think it's silly, it's worth some of my time to investigate it for myself if not for anything else. I'll update this with anything I find out, and any new pictures I take to. Wish me luck.