What to feed a sponge/gorgonians?

[Fishguy622]

I have a small red tree sponge & a small purple gorgonian in my 29g seahorse tank & was wondering if I need to add food for them? The sponge seems to be losing color on it's tips & I'm afraid it's dying. One lfs tried to sell me the famous marc weise combo of black powder/ coral spector to feed them, is this ok or is their something better like a liquid that I can add for food? Also should I cut the tips off the sponge or should I leave it? I dose the tank w/ b-ionic, cal is a bit low at 300 but alk is high at 12dkh w/ a ph of 8.1. My seahorses love to hitch to both of these guys so I would love to keep them alive & see them grow. Thanks for any advice.

Mike

[Gopher]

Sponges are really hard to keep, but the best luck I've had is when I put mine a few inches from the power head intake. They like lots of suction.

[Dean Ladd]

I don't know much about sponges but I have keep a gorgonian for a little over a year now.
Heres a photo of mine 11/03/2001. I will get a current pick to night and post tomorrow. As you can see from this pick the pylops have excellent extention. If you notice the Y where the two branches branched out. Those brances are now 5"to 6". In the pick you see here they are about 1".

I don't do anything special to feed it. Just make sure it has some current to bring it food. When I feed the fish, if some of the flake food gets by them I can watch the pylops of the gogonian grab what floats by. If you want to make sure it is getting enough you could get a food baster and get some mysis shrimp or even flake food crushed up. Than just let that kind of float out of the baster nere the gorgonian. It should get some food from that.

[RicksReefs]

are you sure the white tips isn't new growth?
i have a blue finger sponge & it takes time
for the color to catch up,i don't feed my gorg's
directly,but i defrost my frozen foods in tank
water & pour the juices into the current along
w/the foods.i only feed every 2-3 days,as i
have a fairly light fish load,& they make a
good living off my reef.
HTH

[Dragonlady]

Phytoplankton seems beneficial to sponges. A white ball sponge gradually changed into a larger pink ball sponge. The color change and growth was correlated with the addition of phytoplankton.

[Dean Ladd]

Up dated the webpage with the photo of my gorgonian. You can see the growth differance in 1 year.

[Louis Z]

I dont use a skimmer so the live rock sponges can do their job. Its a 29gal. with one goby and shrimp pair and 3 small peppermints. At first I didnt aerate to see what happened - the water started turning yellow even with small feedings. O2 problems started so I added 2 of the Red Sea wooden airfilters. That solved the O2 and eventually the water started to clear. I can see a small clam and some sponges on the rock so they must be doing their job- and yes the current is required. Some sponges eat bacterial clumps and dissolved organics or particulate organic matter. Order the books from Steve Tyree at Dynamic Ecomorphology on sponges. Order the ones he has in stock but dont preorder the ones that are out of stock.