Coral hitch-hiker identification please

[Jokareefer]

Noticed this on a new piece of coral. Can anyone identify please?

 

[Tahoe61]

Bryozoan.

 

[Jokareefer]

T

Bryozoan.

Thank You

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Yeah, definitely a bryozoan and a pretty one! I would guess a Phidoloporid bryozoan of some variety, but I don't know for sure. Either way, lots of neat life on that coral!

If you want to try and help it (and the other bryozoans I can see on that coral) do well, you can offer it some phytoplankton; I'd recommend some of the ones discussed below if possible:

Edit: I knew I had a paper on these guys tucked away somewhere. If your friend wants to try feeding them (or to try growing them):

“Common microalgal genera used for feeding bryozoans include Dunaliella, Rhodomonas, Tetraselmis, and Pavlova. It is important to supply appropriate cell concentrations of the cultured microalgae to the bryozoan tank, taking into account the dilution volume of the tank itself. Feeding can be done by manual daily additions of cultured cells, or ideally, by a drip feed system, which can be applied both to closed and flow-through systems.”*

Feeding them where they’re at could be a bit tough, but you might be able to target feed them, or you might be able to setup something like a little tube with a funnel that drops the phyto out nearby for the bryozoans to feed on (they make a little current by beating their feeding tentacles - their lophophores - and that current brings the food to their mouth).**

*Source:

Collecting and Culturing Bryozoans for Regenerative Studies

Among marine invertebrates, bryozoans are small, not well known, and complex to identify. Nevertheless, they offer unique opportunities for whole-body generation research, because of their colonial, modular mode of growth. Here, we describe detailed methods for...

link.springer.com

**Source and just some cool info about bryozoans:
https://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/rs/index.php

 

[Jokareefer]

Yeah, definitely a bryozoan and a pretty one! I would guess a Phidoloporid bryozoan of some variety, but I don't know for sure. Either way, lots of neat life on that coral!

If you want to try and help it (and the other bryozoans I can see on that coral) do well, you can offer it some phytoplankton; I'd recommend some of the ones discussed below if possible:

Fascinating, thank you, I have a lot of learning to do!