ox heart ascidian

Description:

Tubular shape with two siphons, one at top and one at side, (they feed trough drawing water in the branchial siphon at the top, filtering out phytoplankton, bacteria and other food particles, before expelling the water through the atrial siphon at the side), white body with dark-purple pattern and yellow patches, yellow inside visible round the rim of the siphons. About 15cm total large.

Habitat:

Spotted at Bunaken Marine Park, North Sulawesi, 20m deep. This species is found in the tropical eastern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean. Its range includes the Philippines, Indonesia and northern Australia. Its depth range is 5 to 50m.

Notes:

Polycarpa aurata is also known as the ox heart ascidian, the gold-mouth sea squirt or the ink-spot sea squirt, is a species of tunicate in the family Styelidae. Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Subphylum: Tunicata Class: Ascidiacea Order: Stolidobranchia Family: Styelidae Genus: Polycarpa Species: P. aurata