Saltcorner
By Bob Goemans
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Hikari 

Family Holozoidae

Distaplia corolla

Monniot, 1974

Button Tunicate

Likely Reef Tank Suitable

Likely Fish-Only Tank Suitable

Range: Western Atlantic Ocean: Cozumel.

Natural Environment: Inhabits hard substrates in shallow water that are subject to good water movement via tidal changes.

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: Holozoidae

    Genus: Distaplia

FYI: Shown here for identification only.

 Distaplia corolla (Button Tunicate)
Photo © Bob Fenner
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Fishy Bizness