No idea how to even describe this

whysohigh

whysohigh

Member
Ok my camera is not picking this up so bear with me and ask questions if it helps.
what i noticed today was 3 small holes in a rock, about the size of the letter O on your keyborad. Ive had this rock for about 8 months, it has a nice patch of bright purple algea on it about the size of a quarter. the algea is on other rocks in the tank, but this patch contains the 3 holes i spoke of.
a rock with algea and holes in it, nothing special there you say
well upon staring into my tank i noticed something protruding from on/around the holes
this is where it gets hard to describe...
it looks like some sort of translucent tube or shaft is begining to grow from the holes, each hole has one, it is the same purple color as the algea, its almost impossible to see because of how translucent it is. it stands about 1/8 of an inch high from the rock/algea surface. it almost looks like a hollow base of my Litophyton arboreum forming.
i wish i could explain it better, any suggestions are appreciated.
 
whysohigh

whysohigh

Member
just noticed the same thing going on on the boney base of one of my trumpet/candy cane corals also, almost looks like a small colony of small, purpleish sea squirts.....................anybody?
 
whysohigh

whysohigh

Member
my friend came up with a better description, little purple translucent volcanos, thats exactly what they look like.
 
whysohigh

whysohigh

Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by spanko http:///forum/thread/382463/no-idea-how-to-even-describe-this#post_3338235
Like this? If so tunicates.

no nothing like that, there isnt one pic on google image search for tunicates or sea squirts i havnt seen, nothing resembles what i have but i believe it is due to the fact that they are so small they may be in the begining stages of life, and tunicates start out as free swimming larva, the more i learn about tunicates the more i rule them out as a possibility, i only used the word tunicate as comparison to try and describe these guys.
the are about 1/8" across and resemble small volcanos, each one has a small hole beneith it.
 
whysohigh

whysohigh

Member

this is not to scale haha, the patch of algae is about the size of a quarter, the hole in the rock is no bigger than the O on your keyboard. thanks in advance.
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Interesting, some type of rock boring worm would be my guess. Gonna follow along to see what develops here.
 
whysohigh

whysohigh

Member
why do i have to have the ones no one knows about haha, im hoping my friend will be bringing his super expensive camera over to try to take a pic, the hitchhiker itself appears to be some sort of fleshy matter, i thought about poking it, but never did for fear of it breaking apart and regenerating like an aptasia or something
 
whysohigh

whysohigh

Member
im not sure about anything haha, but that is a new interesting theory for me to research, thank you much. ill let you know what i find.
 
fretfreak13

fretfreak13

Active Member
Its a sponge, I'm like 99.999999% positive. I have sooo many of these guys, but I don't have a camera. Lemme find a pic of the ones I have on google or something.
Looks like this, http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:kZwvUoEVYr9cZM:http://i449.photobucket.com/albums/qq220/gratefulbean_photo/DSCN0341.jpg&t=1
Or this, http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:rN3OHmv1sry6iM:http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/data/500/medium/101_0683.JPG&t=1
Am I right?
 
whysohigh

whysohigh

Member
its the second one for sure. do you have a scientific name by chance. your a badass, thanks much. i love this site.
 
whysohigh

whysohigh

Member
ok now i do have a question, theres a patch of this on the boney base of my candy cane/trumpet coral, is that bad?
 
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