Walker Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 I saw a picture at another forum (attached) and it looks like the exact same thing my candy cane came with, only on a smaller scale. I had assumed it was a harmless tunicate but the guy claims it overran his candy cane fairly quickly. If it expands that fast then I'll have to take drastic measures (rip it out - seemed quite hard to do before - or exchange the candy cane). So far the unidentified hitchhiker has grown to twice its size in a week and is now encroaching on the rightmost candy cane For reference I'm attaching a pic of my own. Link to comment
Monochrome5 Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 They don't look like tunicates... Tunicates tend to be squishy and those look calcareous. Looks more like an encrusting barnacle to me. If that's the case there isn't much you can do about them. I'd take them out ASAP - barnacles spread pretty fast if that's what they are. Link to comment
Urchinhead Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 clip the candy canes at the base closest to the growth but still clear. Maybe a 1/4" above the infected tissue. Take the infected portion out of the tank. Glue the clear portions and glue them to another clean rock. Hope the growth doesn't continue. Link to comment
Walker Posted August 23, 2012 Author Share Posted August 23, 2012 These definitely are calcerous (I tried prying them off with fingers and tweezers), which is what made alarm bells go off in my head. I'll take 'em out - hopefully they haven't spread to my LR. Link to comment
Walker Posted August 23, 2012 Author Share Posted August 23, 2012 Man, my LFS is gonna love me - I've been there twice this week already, and I'll be there a third time for this. Link to comment
altolamprologus Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Not a tunicate? Lol it's a colonial tunicate. The sting from the coral's heads should keep it from smothering them, but if you don't want them, just use a razor blade or dremel to scrape them off. Link to comment
Bongo Shrimp Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Both pics look like colonial tunicates which are not calcareous. Like alto said they shouldn't take over and they should be easy to scrape off. Plus there are so many different species of colonial tunicates I highly doubt the ones in your pic are the same as the one's in the other pic and each kind grows differently. Link to comment
metrokat Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 100% Tunicate! wow!!!!!! I've been wanting a colonial tunicate colony like that for a while. Lucky you getting it as a HH. If you think it is growing fast you could snap off the head sof the candy cane/trumpet and glue them on a frag plug or rock work. The brown parts of their trunk are not living tissue anyway. Link to comment
patback Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Barnacles are close to impossible to keep in a tank. Where did you hear that they spread quickly? I'm also voting tunicate. Nice one at that. Link to comment
Monochrome5 Posted August 24, 2012 Share Posted August 24, 2012 Well I stand corrected Never seen incrusting tunicates like that before. A quick google search tells me they spread quickly and some people have reported them overtaking coral, but some people keep them as display pieces. Guess it's your call there. Also interesting that they're reported to have motile larvae, so isolating them isn't necessarily guaranteed to stop their spread. Barnacles are close to impossible to keep in a tank. Where did you hear that they spread quickly? I'm also voting tunicate. Nice one at that. They're really easy. We have a few tanks worth of them down at the lab (one of the profs is studying their larvae and breeds them). They just need "high nutrient" water to encourage settling/feeding behavior (a.k.a. really dirty, high silt water). If they'll let me I'll snap a picture or two next time I'm down there. They have to be cleaned out of hoses and bulkheads on a near weekly basis because they spread so fast. Link to comment
Walker Posted August 24, 2012 Author Share Posted August 24, 2012 Thanks for the ID all. Well, seeing as I'm not particularly attached to the tunicate and it IS spreading fast, I decided to do an exchange for a hammer and a rainbow monti (my first SPS!). Link to comment
lakshwadeep Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Wow! That's one of the biggest colonial tunicate colonies I've seen in any reef tank. Nice find! Link to comment
Bongo Shrimp Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Wow! That's one of the biggest colonial tunicate colonies I've seen in any reef tank. Nice find! Link to comment
Sub Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Are they turning orange and white? Google tiger tunicate. That is a good size colony! Dont remove it, it wont hurt anything, and youre more lucky for it to stay alive than take over anything.. and if it does take over that candy cane, power to it! Candy cane are common and easy to get. [oops - you brought it back!?] People pay a lot of money for those! Small frags of orange tiger go for $50-100! Link to comment
altolamprologus Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Chill, it's not a tiger tunicate. There are thousands of species of colonial tunicates Link to comment
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