Sea squirt

[Cichlid Dad]

Found a sea squirt on my new Tampa Bay Salt Water live rock I received today. Question is, will this guy survive? If so any help on keeping him going would be appreciated. He is good sized and I can see him moving.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Ooh there's someone on here who keeps big ones can't remember the name though. I'll tag them if I remember.
@ISpeakForTheSeas usually knows what to do for weird hitchhikers.
I'll do some surface level research and post what I find in a second post.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Forgot to mention they are filter feeders so spot feeding phyto will help. I also like to spot feed my filter feeders with the water that I dissolve mysis cubes in.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Ooh there's someone on here who keeps big ones can't remember the name though. I'll tag them if I remember.
@ISpeakForTheSeas usually knows what to do for weird hitchhikers.
I'll do some surface level research and post what I find in a second post.

Forgot to mention they are filter feeders so spot feeding phyto will help. I also like to spot feed my filter feeders with the water that I dissolve mysis cubes in.

For tunicates, phyto is a great place to start:

If you want to try and help the tunicates do well, offering some phytoplankton would probably be wise. Isochrysis and Rhodomonas or a blend containing at least one of these would be my first choice. For a more intensive diet that would likely show better results, see "Table 3" in the link below:

Coupling feeding activity, growth rates and molecular data shows dietetic needs of Ciona robusta (Ascidiacea, Phlebobranchia) in automatic culture plants

The sea squirt Ciona robusta is a model organism characterized by a transparent body, exhibiting peculiar physiologic and evolutionary characters. In vitro fertilization and breeding of sea squirts is possible, in order to preserve consistent genetic ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[BristleWormHater]

There's a chart I've seen somewhere comparing phytoplankton. I'll try and find it but I remember nanchloropsis was the least effective alive and dead, but still decently effective when alive, but basically useless once dead. Isochrysis was the most effective alive and dead. So if you buy phyto make sure its live for the most benefit and Isochrysis or a mix of multiple is the most effective. I feed live phtyofeast, it's a little expensive but it contains live Isochrysis and nanchloropsis.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Forgot to mention they are filter feeders so spot feeding phyto will help. I also like to spot feed my filter feeders with the water that I dissolve mysis cubes in.

I was just down stairs and sure enough he is pumping water, I add some phyto earlier. My wife came down and saw it too. It takes awhile but is so awesome!

 

[Cichlid Dad]

There's a chart I've seen somewhere comparing phytoplankton. I'll try and find it but I remember nanchloropsis was the least effective alive and dead, but still decently effective when alive, but basically useless once dead. Isochrysis was the most effective alive and dead. So if you buy phyto make sure its live for the most benefit and Isochrysis or a mix of multiple is the most effective. I feed live phtyofeast, it's a little expensive but it contains live Isochrysis and nanchloropsis.

Thank you!

 

[BristleWormHater]

Thank you!

Ooh there's someone on here who keeps big ones can't remember the name though. I'll tag them if I remember.
@ISpeakForTheSeas usually knows what to do for weird hitchhikers.
I'll do some surface level research and post what I find in a second post.

I think @Paul B has or had a big one if not then I'm thinking of someone else. Any inputs?

 

[ReeferHD]

I've had tunicates similar to this one on my gulf live rock for over a year and they're still doing good with no supplemental feeding, though I run very little filtration on my tanks.