ID Help needed.

[harmanrk]

Can anyone help me ID this?

In the photos, is if the in bewteen the two yellow sponges. It first appeared after I reworked my rockscaping about a month ago. It is a redish sphere with a yellowish/greenish top. It does not move, and is fairly well anchored in its spot. I have tried to dislodge it with the end of the turkey baster, but it only moves about a centimeter,streching the base, and then snaps back to it spot as soon as I release it.

The first two shots show it under my normal lighting (O3 + 10K), the third shot is under the 10K only with camera flash, and shows the red coloring much better.







Thank you

Robert

[dakar]

Guess #1 - A peculiar macro algae (similar to some we have found)
Guess #2 - some sort of tunicate or sea squirt.

[harmanrk]

I will also add this. It has a hard surface kind of like bubble algea, but does not have the typical dark greenish color of bubble algea. Tunicate or sea squirt would be cool, but do those has a harder surface, or are they soft and squishy like sponges?