Cool Tunicate Hitchhiker

[David Grigor]

I specifically bought this maricultured acro from Ed at OD around Christmas time just to get the tunicate that was growing on the bottom. It ended up a win/win becuase the coral went from blah to a real nice green with pink tips and the tunicate has really taken off too..

It is really detailed looking and black and white in color. I plan to mount it on the underside of a upper ledge to let it spread just haven't done it yet. It completely covers the bottom of the cement plug and has spread up to the top of the plug as well. It's about a 4"X4" total in size.....

In the upper middle you can see one of the larger openings. There are many more just the camera doesn't really pick them up.

http://www.tcmas.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=56&pictureid=395

[mtfatwork]

that is absolutely stunning David! What a score :)

[Goldpony75]

Ed still has a bunch of it growing in various places in the frag tank. Him and I were just talking about it today.

[David Grigor]

Good timing then.....perhaps can work as a little plug for OD too.....

[David Grigor]

Ed showed me another interesting one that was different than this but not quite cool enough to spend $60 to get it.

[coralreefer]

Very nice, how much has it grown for you?

[David Grigor]

When I got it, it was only visable by lifting the coral up and looking at the bottom. Now there is at least 1" up and over the side of the plug ( The part you see in the pic is all new growth ). I'd say about 1-1.5" in all directions since Christmas. If you were to skin it off the the rock and flatten it out ( like a bear rug ) it's about 4"X4" total in size.

Will see how it goes, but do plan to make a few frags and see how they fare.....

I play with the camera some more to get a bit more sharp and better black/white contrast. If can get a good enough shot maybe I'll submit it for the next calendar.

[REEFSTOCK]

soo wheat

[RaysReef]

Fritz just made that "word" a 2 syllable

[NandKBlock]

Very cool, and unusual! I read the section on tunicates in Fenner's Reef Invertebrates after seeing this and it sounds like meeting their dietary needs is tough in a typically 'clean' reef aquarium. I'm curious what, if anything, you've been doing special since acquiring it that's making it thrive like that. And also whether you are sucessfully keeping other tunicates. To this newbie at least it sounds like they have a great deal of potential as far as furthering natural filtration methods.

On a side note, I've spoken with Ed at Ocean Devotion twice now and have come away impressed both times. He's great at providing a more scientific perspective and approach to this hobby. So yeah, props to Ocean Devotion even if it's on the other side of the world from me. :)

[David Grigor]

No special requirements. My tank is barebottom so probably have a bit more detritus floating around than a sandbed system would.

Filtration wise, it would likely take so much of them that it couldn't provide a significant amount of filtration and too slow growing to use as an export. It would just be for fun no significant benefit.

You may be thinking of the other larger colonial tunicates like the blue lollipop tunicates which are difficult to keep........this was just a hitchhiker.

[morty]

I wonder if you'll have to dose vanadium :)

[wes]

I wonder if you'll have to dose vanadium :)

:gay1:


I've found tons of tunicates in almost all of my systems. You'll find that sometimes the stuff you don't intend to keep does well, often better than the intentional stuff. :-)