Interesting item Need identification

[Fish_dave]

These were found between 35 and 55 meters depth. Indo Pacific area. The collector is curious about an I.D. and whether there is any demand for them.

Thanks,

Dave

 

[dvmsn]

I would vote for tunicates. Fascinating animals, they start off as vertebrates and end up like that.

 

[SnowManSnow]

do they retract or anyting when touched? I mean, is it a coral or sponge or what?

 

[Anonymous]

I would vote for tunicates. Fascinating animals, they start off as vertebrates and end up like that.

Tunicates are chordates, not vertebrates. All vertebrates are chordates, not all chordates are vertebrates. Square/rectangle kind of thing. But among invertebrates, they are the closest relatives to us.

 

[dvmsn]

Sorry, it has been a long time since marine biology

 

[Anonymous]

From the pic, I would say Tunicates. The question about demand depends on their survivability in home tanks, which for tunicates is generally pretty poor.
Get them to some people who feed a lot, and see how they do.

 

[Anonymous]

Some do quite well while most don't do good at all. I've had them be parasites in one of my systems that I feed a lot of rotifers to.

 

[thecommersoni]

Very cool