sponges

shakara_b · #1 11/07/2006, 09:31 PM

Can anyone give me some info on taking care of sponges. Im thinking about getting one.

reefD · #2 11/07/2006, 09:53 PM

they need good flow....with no substrate /debri occasionally covering them as its fatal. also if your tank has some algea issues then your sponge may get covered and thats fatal also. they can be easy to care for or extreamly hard to keep. ussually the colorful ones dont fair well. the idea is to keep them in algea free tanks/ with good flow/ no build up of debri on rock/surfaces like coral/ and good filter feeding schedules. also prestine water is a must. 4 sure can be difficult.

info from web:
Sponges filter massive amounts of water every day, feeding on the microplankton. Many will develop calcium, silica or sponging structures to support their shape. Sponges need to be anchored in rockwork; they do not tolerate sandy anchoring substrates.

Care Level: Difficult
Light: Low
Water Flow: Strong
Tank Conditions: 72-78°F; sg 1.023-1.025; pH 8.1-8.4; dKH 8-12
Temperament: Peaceful
Reef Compatible: Yes

Sponge requires a strong current and excellent water quality.

All sponges, including the Tree Sponge, require some very special care in order to survive in the home aquarium. The most critical concern is that it never be exposed to the air. If it is, the air would become trapped in the matrix of channels that line the inside of its body, blocking the path for planktonic food to reach its cells. This will result in death of the sponge.

Supplemental feedings of dissolved organic food are required

from this link
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=577

shakara_b · #3 11/07/2006, 10:08 PM

Thank You. I knew I had seen some info some where. Thanks again. Peace.

reefD · #4 11/07/2006, 10:14 PM

again they can be attractive but ussually difficult to keep healthy and prevent them from just wasting away.

scorp1on · #5 11/08/2006, 08:07 AM

Good article in TFH on them I beleive end of last year

DanConnor · #6 11/08/2006, 01:12 PM

The ones sold in pet stores are pretty much like cut flowers. You just enjoy them for a while!

Better adapted sponges will grow from the live rock, but its not as showy.

WinkeyWoneye · #7 11/08/2006, 10:37 PM

I got a bright blue sponge from Swamp Bottom a while back. It seems to be doing just fine even after the torture its been thru in the past month. Tony did tell me they were a very hardy sponge when I bought it. One thing I didnt see mentioned here is a sponge should NEVER be taken out of water. You will have to submerge the bag fully and take it out of the bag while underwater. This also means the water from the bag will be mixed in with your tank water so be sure its free of chemicals, etc. (just ask the supplier if they use chemicals in there water)

There are also diffrent types of sponges, some photosynthetic some are not. The blue one I have is a photosynthetic sponge. Any part of it not hit by light turns white, while the parts exposed are a bright blue. I have accidentally ripped it in half trying to move rocks around, this didnt bother it a bit. Matter of fact, it just made little sponges start growing where all the pieces landed. Now I have a bunch of little blue sponges growing on my substrate without any visible negative effects from the sand. I have also pulled the rock it used to be on out of the water and the chunk inside the rock is still growing even after being out of water. I think it largely depends on the type of sponge you get, wether or not it will be hard to take care of. Good luck with it.

reefD · #8 11/09/2006, 01:20 AM

true but most of the sponges we end up having succerss with are not purchased but colorful hitchikers .....i have some orange sponges growing in small spots for over 6 months ,spread slowly but not growing mad! anyways great advice as its a luck draw that ends up, for me , being success by accident with hitchickers that do well. ive only tries a few ( about 5 species and they do wither with time when i kept them. ) in anycase if you are willing to be dil;agent and attack the issue you will succeed......care and thought is why we have this hobby/.

xian · #9 11/09/2006, 07:44 AM

michaelg and I both had a dark green sponge that was photosynthetic and grew like crazy in aquaria. Also didn't die from (brief) air exposure. It died when my tank crashed but I know I got it from ORA. I'd be interested in trying to grow it again.

Michael do you have any of that green sponge or know where we can get it?

michaelg · #10 11/09/2006, 11:27 AM

Green? I have one that turns black from a lot of light, and has "tentacles" to it. There are a few that do well, but are not common. All the red trees, and "ball" sponges I personally stay away from. Shame as there probably quite a few that would do well in our aquaria, but we never seen them. Feeding phyto always seems to encourage growth of my sponges. Maybe it just waste organic matter, but whatever- the phyto seems to get and keep them growing.

Sk8r · #11 11/09/2006, 11:34 AM

Get some phytoplankton and start feeding it daily, a good squirt [re tank size.] You may find that you already HAVE sponges. I did this because of my mandarin [raising pods] and my tank's live rock immediately blossomed with yellow ball, red/pink encrusting, blue vein, white lumpy, and an orange bit I'm trying to encourage. They may start from a stray invisible bit and grow enormously with regular feeding.

xian · #12 11/09/2006, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by michaelg
Green? I have one that turns black from a lot of light, and has "tentacles" to it.

Thats the one I was talking about. It always seemed to be a dark green that turned darker "black" in the light.

Do you still have some of that? As I said before I lost mine.

WinkeyWoneye · #13 11/09/2006, 04:51 PM

I do also feed phyto daily. I forgot to mention that I will blow off any detrius or sand I see building up on them with a turkey baster.

shakara_b · #14 11/10/2006, 01:19 AM

Cool good info here.

WinkeyWoneye, I almost bought that blue sponge from swamp bottom a month or so ago. Some how I have a lot of yellow sponges (or aleast what I think are yellow sponges) growing in my tank and I figured that blue one would spread and i'd have yellow and blue sponges randomly around the tank. The yellow sponges i have look like that blue sponge and not like the orange ones they have at eddies'.

WinkeyWoneye · #15 11/10/2006, 01:32 AM

I have alot of yellow sponges also. I didnt put them in the tank they just came in as hitchhikers. They seem to grow in the dark areas though, under rocks and such. I never saw them until I did some re-aquascaping. I just recently got some LR off Scottyc1 also and they had a few huge chunks of the yellow sponges on it. That LR was out of water for a good hour with only wet newspaper around it. I did lose a big chunk of the sponge but some of it is still in tack and seems to be doing ok, even being exposed to light now and being out of water for a hour. Some of them seem pretty darn hardy. Where others like the ball and tree sponges dont seem to fair well in our aquaria as michealg mentioned above. That blue sponge is pretty cool. I picked mine up when Tony first got them in. It has visibly grown quite a bit also in the few months I have owned it. It was just swapped from my old 39 gallon to my new 72 gallon 3 days ago. We will see how well it fares that, even though seems to be fine right now. *knock on wood

Wink