[karnivor]

Ok, this has been growing very very slowly for some months. Its actually slowly grown from down a hole and is now expanding above the rock. It is non mobile but watched closely, you can see tha polyps move and the whole body sometimes looks like its taken a breath.

Its like nothing ive ever seen and you will need to blow the picture up fully to see the detail. The whole thing is only about 2cm across.

I'd love to know what it is, its very special to me.

[ben]

maybe an oyster with some sort of coral growing on it.

[karnivor]

ben, on Jul 6 2009, 07:26 AM, said:

maybe an oyster with some sort of coral growing on it.

I dont think so Ben. Its too soft for that. When I say it breathes, only part of it does so at anyone time. Looking at the photo, you can see where some of the polyps are grouped closer together and i'm assuming its where that part of the coral? has colapsed temporarily. Because of its small size, its hard to observe. I'm not sure if my camera will take macro movies, but if so, ill have a go at capturing some movement.

If only google allowed you to search with an image

[tommo]

I would suggest it is an oyster, possibly a spondylus spp. encrusted with some species of tunicate (as suggested by the multiple mouths and breathing action) Some of these can be quite elaborate, many slow growing, and many unidentified. I would suggest it isnt a coral!

Tom

[karnivor]

tommo, on Jul 28 2009, 11:09 PM, said:

I would suggest it is an oyster, possibly a spondylus spp. encrusted with some species of tunicate (as suggested by the multiple mouths and breathing action) Some of these can be quite elaborate, many slow growing, and many unidentified. I would suggest it isnt a coral!

Tom

Its actually a single item. Its not living on, or encrusting anything.
From the side it looks like a small toadstool leather coral, in that it stands on a thick stalk.

Try as I will, I cant identify it, or even get close to it despite looking at hundreds of images of Ascidians.

[tommo]

Yeah, it sounds and looks new to me too! i will guarantee its an ascidian

Let me pass it round and get back to you, though i doubt ill get a conclusive ID, If you can can you take more pics from different angles

Cheers

Tom

[Dave.I]

Colonial zoanthid?