Does anyone know this beautiful creature?

[AquaSim]

This photo was taken at Peurto Galera, Philipines.
Can anyone identify it please?

 

[liquid]

Might be a sea pen. Do a search in either AdvancedAquarist.com or go to our library and click on the Aquarium Frontiers Index and do a search there.

Shane

 

[John_Brandt]

Colonial tunicates. Probably Sycozoa sp.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey, that was my guess! (Tunicates) But I honestly don't know to say one way or the other.

 

[Chucker]

A search for "lollipop coral" on the board should turn up what you're looking for.

 

[Anonymous]

I have seen that here quite some time ago in a beautiful blue color. Must be at least two colors. Quite nice. 8)

 

[John_Brandt]

I have seen that here quite some time ago in a beautiful blue color. Must be at least two colors. Quite nice. 8)

Are you sure you saw this genera? These are like 8-10 inches tall!

 

[Anonymous]

I have seen that here quite some time ago in a beautiful blue color. Must be at least two colors. Quite nice. 8)

Are you sure you saw this genera? These are like 8-10 inches tall!

Cannot answer that John. I know it was a blue color. Not the height or anything about the size. I remember the person asking was wanting to know how to care for it. The name that the LFS sold it as was useless in a search for more info.

 

[Anonymous]

Ah, here is the link.

http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15814&highlight=lollipop

Thanks to Chucker for the search term. The LFS called it Blue Palm. I thought it was very pretty at the time.

GEESE! That was a year and a half ago. Memory like an elephant!

 

[AquaSim]

Colonial tunicates. Probably Sycozoa sp.

Thanks John,
I finally found the same species in the internet by seaching "Sycozoa "
According to Bill Rudman of Seaslugforum.net :
"it looks identical to one identified as Sycozoa sp. in Gosliner, Behrens & Williams (1996) Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific [#1067],
a species they say is only known from the Philippines.
This ascidian grows to about 25cm in height "
http://www.seaslugforum.net/nembsp12.htm

The photographer, Peter van Bragt who took the picture at Sanbang, Phillipines (same place where I took my picture !)
called it Sycozoa morph yellowspot.

and there is a nudibranch feeding on it.
http://home.hetnet.nl/~ascidians/famili ... wspot1.htm

Also ther are similar species with blue color but classified as another species: Nephteis
http://www.starfish.ch/collection/chordata.html

At first, I also thought they are some kind of sea pen or sea pansy,
but cannot found an identical species.
Since they are tunicates, then they are not invertebrates.
Sometimes, from their appearance, it is hard to imagine that they are vertebrate animal or at least from the Urochordata phylum :wink:

How come I cannot see my photo attached last night?

 

[Archmage]

how do you view pics here? I don't see any attachments in any of these postings here. Never could figure out how to view pics here.

 

[John_Brandt]

AquaSim, I didn't see any of these when I was in the Philippines. But the pelagic tunicates seemed to be everywhere.

Tunicates are amazing and beautiful creatures, but unfortunately their track-record in captivity is poor.

These are not exactly vertebrates (possessing a true backbone), but they are about the closest thing to it. (Uro-)Chordate - yes, vertebrate - no.

Archmage and AquaSim probably can't view the photos because you aren't logged-in to the Reefs.org website. Go to the top of the page and log-in.

 

[AquaSim]

Dear John.

thanks for correcting me. I remembered wrong about the difference between vertebrate and (Uro-)Chordate becuase in chinese, the wording is quite similar
and i can see the picture now after logging in.

 

[HClH2OFish]

how do you view pics here? I don't see any attachments in any of these postings here. Never could figure out how to view pics here.

You need to be logged in...

 

[Anonymous]

FWIW, the most closely related members of Chordata that are NOT vertebrates are in the subphylum Cephalochordata--commonly called lancelets. Very interesting little eel like creatures that filter feed. We tried maintaining some (genus Amphioxus I think) for a while in a large refugium with no luck. Apparently they're also very difficult to maintain.