montereybayaquarium:

[Opening Marine Wildlife Wonder Oven and inhaling deeply] Aaaaaaaah, our famous Star-Spangled Toasty Tunicate Didemnum Dumplings are ready for eyes to feast upon them!

Didemnum tunicates are an apartment complex of many filter-feeding individuals, all housed in a shared orange tunic. Each small hole is a mouth to one of the tenants, while the larger opening is the communal waste disposal.

These co-ops defend themselves from would-be Didem-noms with sharp spikes, while other tunicates use chemical defenses like sulfuric acid to fend off nosy neighbors.

Brilliant tunicates like Didemnum are plastered all over the rocky reef here in Monterey Bay, from solitary morphs like the ruby sea peach getting tubed under barnacle feet above, or or the bright pink modern art of a Cystodytes lobatus colony below.

These colorful critters filter the water for microscopic food—one large solitary tunicate may filter several liters of seawater in an hour! Whatever the case, these lil’ dumplings are certainly a part of a balanced kelp forest ecosystem.