Tunicate or barnacle?

Collinslice · Dec 9, 2015

Came in on a colony of hydnopora and I really wanna slice it off and take it home. Black with yellow spots with one relatively large mouth

Collinslice · Dec 9, 2015

Collinslice · Dec 9, 2015

Popped it off,and put it on a plug in high flow. Looks like a barnacle with the little fan waving. Will be taking it home once my tank cycles. Super unique!!

Squishie89 · Dec 10, 2015

Collinslice said:
Popped it off,and put it on a plug in high flow. Looks like a barnacle with the little fan waving. Will be taking it home once my tank cycles. Super unique!!

That does sound like a barnacle. Tunicates do not have any obvious moving parts like that. Tunicates look more like sponges than barnacles as well.
Here are a couple of small tunicates on a snail (also a clam is on there too, he is covered in fun stuff)

Lionfish Lair · Dec 10, 2015

Which side are you looking at? The structure on the right is a tunicate. Or is it the thing on the left you are looking at?

Collinslice · Dec 10, 2015

Lionfish Lair said:
Which side are you looking at? The structure on the right is a tunicate. Or is it the thing on the left you are looking at?

I'll get a pic of the whole guy on a plug tomorrow afternoon. I'm mainly wondering what the smooth yellow spotted skin is. Its smooth almost like coraline

Lionfish Lair · Dec 10, 2015

Looking forward to the pic.

Collinslice · Dec 11, 2015

Lionfish Lair · Dec 11, 2015

OK, I "drew" on the picture to make sure we're taking about the same thing.

Circled in red is a tunicate, unless those little yellow orange things are almost flower like and then it would be a bryozoan. The thing in the blue is a barnacle or a boring bivalve like a mussel. If there is something flicking in and out, it's a barnacle. If it just kind of moves in there like a little Seymour mouth, it's a mussel kind of thing.