Saltcorner
By Bob Goemans
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Family Diazonidae

Rhopalaea crassa

(Herdman, 1880)

Blue Sea Squirt

Likely Reef Tank Suitable

Likely Fish-Only Tank Suitable

Range: Central Indo-Pacific Ocean

Natural Environment: Inhabits hard substrates in shallow water subject to good water movement.

Aquarium Suitability: Not purposely collected for the home aquarium trade.

Forms clusters and rarely ever seen in the home aquarium trade/available for purchase.

Yet may, yet extremely rarely, inadvertently occur on coral specimens/live rock from areas of their collection.

Requires special attention to feeding requirements. For those that want to maintain them, they require numerous feedings per day of live and/or preserved commercial phytoplankton/zooplankton products or that of animal and plant powders that produce suspended products in the bulk water and/or bacteria laden waters.

Proper placement is also quite important. Generally, most prefer low light and do better with indirect light and gentle water movement.

Besides being difficult to maintain, they have a very short life span, usually about one year and sometimes far less. Only those willing to provide for their demanding level of care should attempt keeping them in closed systems. Actually, 99.9% should be left in the wild.

Taxonomy:

    Kingdom: Animalia

    Phylum: Chordata

    Class: Ascidiacea

    Order: Aplousobranchia

    Family: Diazonidae

    Genus: Rhopalaea

FYI: Shown here for identification only.

The green squirts are Diplosoma virens.

 Rhopalaea crassa (Blue Sea Squirt)
Photo © Wikimedia
 Rhopalaea crassa (Blue Sea Squirt)
Photo © Frank Walker
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