My Tunicate just Threw Up....A Live Hitchiker!

[Cary]

Absolutely Amazing. Congrats.

 

[klp]

Great find, great story! Keep us informed from time to time on what you feed both, how they are progressing etc.

 

[vikinglord13]

Cool stuff. It makes sense the tunicate would be abke to ingest the shrimp's poo. I wonder if the shrimp helps protect the tunicate from pests?

 

[Sea MunnKey]

It wasnt a rock...IT WAS A ROCK- LOBSTER!!!!!

The B52's ...?

 

[Sea MunnKey]

that is really cool!! And oh I love tunicates but never got to collect them though. After witnessing yours I might just attempt it. Thanks for showing

 

[H3rm1tCr@b]

So...... I bought a tunicate. (Yea, I know), I thought it was an ox heart tunicate. Kinda just grey and lavender lines.
A few hours after getting g it Home the color got deeper in the veins and the siphons a nice orangey color.

A few days pass, colors get deeper and I’m pretty darned happy.

I looked at the tank last night and I noticed it was curled up. Ten minutes later it started to shed.
(Inner monologue “it’s shedding , it’s just shedding, uhhh do they shed?”)

Yes. They do shed. But this was FAST. Under an hour. Also starts to change color....

Well cool! Get camera. Stay clam.

Uhhhh, are those guts? Aw, geeeze...

Seriously, what the heck is that?!?
Where are my 390 loupes and 189 macro lenses!?!?

Thanks to modern technology and the speed this all happened , we turned to the trusty IPhone and the $3 plastic loupe and got this!


Mind BLOWN!!!

Yea, it is alive , and in a mesh bag in the tank.

Anyone like to hazard a guess as to what it is exactly?

Oh, and yes , we feel much better (and more colorful),after a quick purge and a shed.
Golden Tunicate (or Oxheart ) , Polycarpa Aurata

I forgot to #reefsquad my friends.

Wow I think that’s some sort of symbiotic crab or squat lobster???

 

[H3rm1tCr@b]

Nature is fantastic ... the Polycarpa aurata tunicate is extremely beautiful!

Your guest, seen in the photo, seems to be the shrimp symbionte Odontonia katoi.

Regards

Did you keep it? It’s so pretty and cute!

 

[Garia666]

This stuff is why I love reefing so much, this is an golden find sometimes you get lucky like that you have an opurtunity to study it closely.

 

[vetteguy53081]

How cool !!!
And people ask why we have a reef tank !!