ID please

[Gant]

This was on some live rock I had curing. It is a white billowing mass of very thin tissue. It actually looks like the skin on a blister. There was a little bit of brain coral tissue when I got the rock. I didn't think I could salvage it and figured it would die. I assumed the white tissue was some dead coral tissue, but it has grown (or more of it has appeared). There is also some on the rock next to it. It doesn't look like sponge, and it's thinner than soft tissue like brain or candy cane. It doesn't really stink, and it's been like this for about a week. Any ideas?

*Edit. I had a hard time getting a decent photograph. It looks like sponge in the picture, but it's different from that.

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[celebrityovernight]

really does look like some type of sponge. why do you think its not?

 

[Ashlar]

Could be a tunicate, but I'd say sponge as well. I've got some growing in my fuge that has a transparent / translucent skin like that.

 

[BigSteve]

I got some on the side of a clam...if i can, ill post a pic and compare.

 

[DaveJ]

Never seen anything like that before.. what's it feel like? Slimy or not? Firm or delicate?

 

[Ashlar]

Here's mine.. feels slick.

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[DaveJ]

@Ashlar wrote:

That looks like a tunicate.

 

[Ashlar]

I thought so, too, but it doesn't respond to touch, so not sure.

 

[DaveJ]

@Ashlar wrote:

Me either, but yours looks more like one than his does. Though in the last photo it does look like they are forming spouts (for lack of a better term). If it just encrusts, I have no idea what it is. Most of them I have seen have open ends with spouts. I've never tested to see if they react to stimuli though.

 

[Gant]

Thanks for the replies. I felt it like night, and it pretty much disintegrated. I'm assuming now it was dead tissue--I just never saw that much live tissue on those rocks.