What is this?

[wingnut247]

http://www.lkstevens.wednet.edu/northlake/STAFF/krause/homepage/files/whataretheseIMG_8319.JPG

What are these little buggers?

Have these in 2 of my filters in two different tanks... and I have a couple more of these guys stuck to the glass in 1 tank.

Good / bad or nuetral?

 

[ronj]

looks like some sort of tunicate.(filter feeder) they are harmless..i have tons of them..i may be wrong about the name, but i am pretty sure that is right!!

 

[balogh03]

i tought that they were tunicate as well. if you have a refugium, there is only about 1000000 of things like that.jk

 

[wingnut247]

sea squirt sounded right but I wasnt sure... when I googled "tunicate" the site I went to said a comon name was sea squirt... so not too suprised there. But, I was suprized to find out that they have primative spinal/nerve cord.

Just wondering if I have anything to worry about... sounds like no.

Kinda neat the stuff that pops up.

 

[ronj]

nothing to worry about... they are harmless!! just filter feeders..i have tons in my filters and on some rocks.. almost every tank has them!

 

[shallowreef]

I just started to get them in my sump. My old tank was loaded with them.

 

[NaH2O]

Those are not tunicates, but scypha sponges. They are harmless filter feeders, as well. Scypha ciliata

 

[shallowreef]

You know i thought that they were sponges bu t i just assumed i was wrong and didn't want to seem lik an idiot.

 

[matts125]

hey wingnut you saved me a thread, I was getting ready to ask the same thing... I have a lot of those in my new 100 gallon tank/ sump. I figured they were harmless and probably help with nitrates as well......



Matt

 

[NaH2O]

No problem shallowreef! (and no reason to "seem like an idiot"). Even if they were tunicates, and you posted something like "I thought maybe they were sponges", then that would hopefully result in information on the difference....which would help others learn how to identify them in their tanks. One trait a tunicate has that sponges do not is the movement of their siphon holes. These scypha sponges are easily identifiable by the spikey top. They are also called Q-Tip sponges, or Pineapple sponges.

Here are some differences with Tunicates and Sponges. This is from the book Reef Invertebrates by Calfo and Fenner, page 370.

*Tunicate: Responds rapidly to being touched (closing apertures/openings)
*Sponge: Slow or totally unresponsive to being touched (holes are not moveable)

*Tunicate: Two large openings (one atop and the other just slightly lower), or one large opening atop and many small holes around the body, systematically patterned
*Sponge: Spiked outward projections around openings (spicules) but no inward projections

*Tunicate: Inward and mobile tentacles lining the apertures
*Sponge: Rough or porous texture (sponge) and not slimy-mucous or smooth (tunicates)