Pelagic tunicates?

[ScubaRon]

I shot these about 26 miles off the coast of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Each "cell" was about 3" tall and the strings of cells were anywhere from 1' to 6' long.
My best guess is that they are reproducing pelagic tunicates (Salpa sp.).
Any other ideas?
ScubaRon

 

[ScubaRon]

Here's the picture

 

[ScubaRon]

Here is the picture

 

[drbill]

Could be a species of Salpa but I can't be cvertain. There are other genera of pelagic tunicates (salps) and I'm not overly familiar with them all, even though there aren't that many known species from what I understand.

Dr. Bill

 

[John H. Moore]

Perhaps Pegea confoederata -- in the photo it kind of looks like these salps have the characteristic 'X' pattern of muscles for this species.

 

[drbill]

John may be correct on that... it did look like one of the Pegea salps in my guide to pelagic inverts. I'm not familiar enough with their systematics to tell from the picture.

Dr. Bill

 

[ScubaRon]

I looked at various websites and it looks indeed like Pegea confoederata.
Thanks guys!
ScubaRon