Sea Vase (Ciona intestinalis)

from $60.00
Quantity:

ive Sea Vase (Ciona intestinalis)
Please Note This Is A Live Science Specimen

The Sea Vase (Ciona intestinalis), also known as the Sea Squirt, is a translucent, iridescent yellow tunicate commonly found attached to mooring lines, pilings, buoys, traps, floats, and salmon pens throughout the Gulf of Maine. These filter-feeding invertebrates draw in seawater through one siphon and expel it through another, efficiently capturing plankton and organic matter while playing an important ecological role in coastal systems.

Sea Vases are excellent specimens for classroom study, invertebrate zoology, and aquarium display. They offer students a hands-on look at one of the most evolutionarily significant invertebrates — a member of the phylum Chordata and a close relative to vertebrates.

Common name: Sea Vase, Sea Squirt
Scientific name: Ciona intestinalis
Locations: Mooring lines, buoys, traps, pilings, floats, and salmon pens
Seasonality: Available year-round
Colors: Iridescent yellow
Size: 1” – 4”
Collected: By hand
Quantity: Sold by the each

Uses: Ideal for invertebrate anatomy lessons, tunicate research, or live aquarium exhibits.

Note: This is a live marine specimen. Natural variations in size, color, and appearance from photos should be expected. If you would like any specimen preserved, please send a request to: info@gulfofme.com.

ive Sea Vase (Ciona intestinalis)
Please Note This Is A Live Science Specimen

The Sea Vase (Ciona intestinalis), also known as the Sea Squirt, is a translucent, iridescent yellow tunicate commonly found attached to mooring lines, pilings, buoys, traps, floats, and salmon pens throughout the Gulf of Maine. These filter-feeding invertebrates draw in seawater through one siphon and expel it through another, efficiently capturing plankton and organic matter while playing an important ecological role in coastal systems.

Sea Vases are excellent specimens for classroom study, invertebrate zoology, and aquarium display. They offer students a hands-on look at one of the most evolutionarily significant invertebrates — a member of the phylum Chordata and a close relative to vertebrates.

Common name: Sea Vase, Sea Squirt
Scientific name: Ciona intestinalis
Locations: Mooring lines, buoys, traps, pilings, floats, and salmon pens
Seasonality: Available year-round
Colors: Iridescent yellow
Size: 1” – 4”
Collected: By hand
Quantity: Sold by the each

Uses: Ideal for invertebrate anatomy lessons, tunicate research, or live aquarium exhibits.

Note: This is a live marine specimen. Natural variations in size, color, and appearance from photos should be expected. If you would like any specimen preserved, please send a request to: info@gulfofme.com.

These sea vases are fastened to a lobster trap among some rock barnacles!

Tidepool Tim says,  "Sea vases are a solitary tunicate that grows abundantly on any benthic structure it can find - from rocks and shells to lobster traps, boat hulls, pilings and floats.  It has 2 large siphons on that carry seawater in and out of the the animal which it uses to filter plankton.  One carries water in and one water and wastes out.  Once the tadpole like larvae have settled and begin to grow they cement themselves to the substrate with some kind of adhesive. 

Actually a very primitive chordate - these are the organisms that show a notochord, gill slits, and muscle bands. If you look closely you can see these as stripes along the 'tunic' and can also see their primitive gut. My kids and I like to peel them from rocks and use them as squirt guns on each other!  Lots of fun.”