Live Marine Sponge diet?

[Gordonious]

I was thinking of adding some sponges to a tank which I will eventually have sea horses in. I think they will grow well as the gorgonians that will also be in the tank will be very well fed. Last night when I was feeding my French Angle it’s special Angle diet containing marine sponge I came across a good question. If I were to get the sponges to grow well enough and then frag them off a bit could I occasionally place a small frag in with my angle for it to pick on?

 

[Random Aquarist]

French angles? I thought there were just obtuse, right, and acute angles?

Sure, there isn't a reason why you couldn't feed your French angle(?) home-grown sponges.

 

[Fishboy1230]

Ive got tons of little sponges, the've been living off of indrictely fed food from my corals. So a little filter feeder food and walla ive got 5 more. They tend to grow in the darker parts of my tank, but mainly the sump.

 

[Paul B]

I don't see why not. I collect live sponges by the pound in the summer and freeze them to feed to my moorish Idol and copperband butterfly. I am sure angels would love it.
paul

 

[Gordonious]

Copperband butterflys would eat them to? Is this just something they would eat because it's there or would it be close to their staple in the wild?

Jon

PS.
I had been up till 4am-5am the three nights before I posted that message. Exams were over and it was time to celebrate. I'll never claim to be a good speller, lol.

 

[Paul B]

Jon, most copperbands would not eat sponge. I taught mine to eat it along with bananas. I am sure they don't need sponge as they are carnivores but since the moorish Idol eats it the copperband steals the extra sponge.
Copperbands eat mostly worms.
Paul

 

[Gordonious]

I've got to ask... why bananas?

 

[Paul B]

No reason. I eat them so he eats them

 

[Aqua Keepers]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8772147#post8772147 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Paul B
I collect live sponges by the pound in the summer and freeze them to feed to my moorish Idol and copperband butterfly. I am sure angels would love it.
paul

Why don't you send me some.
How would you start a sponge tank? Are there any sponge distributers?

 

[Gordonious]

I think it really depends on what type of sponge it is. My understanding was that many sponges are difficult to keep in reef tanks unless you are spot feeding good planktonic food. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/spongesii.htm

 

[Paul B]

Pito these sponges that I collect I have to freeze right away. They don't live in a tank for a day.
I tried many times. Most, if not all sponges are very difficult to keep alive.

 

[Angel*Fish]

Paul, some sponges can't come in contact with the air at all or it will kill them. Have you already tried making sure they never "touch" air?

Gordonious, I agree with you about it making a difference which sponge - but less so possibly with angels than with some other animals like starfish. If you are successful enough growing them in your sea horse tank that you have enough to feed your french angel - I say go for it! But I wouldn't stop with the frozen angel food (with sponge), for the sake of diversity.

I've always wondered if they put any effort at all in the making those angel formulas to obtain a type of sponge that is naural for them -- somehow it seems unlikely.

If you find anyone who knows how much of a difference it makes, I'd sure be interested! If you discover which sponge your fish goes crazy over the most, that would be valuable info, too!

 

[Gordonious]

Hum... I think this may be time for a little experimenting and definitely a lot of research. I would have figured that most sponges would contain the same material just structured differently, but I really know hardly anything about that sort of thing. One of my bosses has studied corals extensively and may have some insight on this. I will send her an e-mail for sure.

 

[Fishboy1230]

The sponges i have are really hardy and dont need spot feeding, There about the size of your thumbnail but there are hundreds in LR caves

 

[Paul B]

Marie I know all about not letting sponges touch air. The New York incrusting sponges I collect on piers are very common and easy to collect. They only grow a few inches underwater. I can collect loads of them in the summer and the fish like them frozen better than fresh anyway so it is no problem. My moorish Idol goes crazy over tham and it may be one reason that fish is living so long.
Paul

 

[Aqua Keepers]

Gordonious, Please keep us posted on your seahorse/sponge tank, as I'd like to grow sponges myself for a future plan of keeping a reagal angel

 

[Gordonious]

Sure thing. I'll have to agree with Marie(Angel*Fish) though that you should still feed the special frozen diet. I am doing this more as an additional mix to it's diet, to make extra sure it gets what it needs to stay healthy. I also am doing it though because I found the sponge matches the gorgs I will be keeping and wouldn't require any extra care if I placed them with my gorgs.

I'd compare it to eating vitamins when your already eating a balanced diet of three meals a day.

 

[Aqua Keepers]

Maybe try posting this in the Coral Propagation forum

 

[Angel*Fish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8786084#post8786084 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Paul B
Marie I know all about not letting sponges touch air. The New York incrusting sponges I collect on piers are very common and easy to collect. They only grow a few inches underwater. I can collect loads of them in the summer and the fish like them frozen better than fresh anyway so it is no problem. My moorish Idol goes crazy over tham and it may be one reason that fish is living so long.
Paul

Well I figured chances were you did, but thought I'd mention it just in case

 

[Gordonious]

I also wanted to ask about the amount of time my angel spends eating. I know in the wild they spend just about 99% of their day eating or at least inspecting things to see if they could be eaten. I wondered how long a sponge would last if I placed the whole thing in the tank with him. I know when this guy gets full grown he would probably swallow it whole, but I am wondering now if it would last a week maybe?

The only thing I could see being a big problem is if I put the angel in a tank filled with sponges and it nibbled off all of them causing small sections in each to die and causing a slight increase in ammonia. I am not familiar with sponges and growth perhaps even this might not be a problem to the water chemistry any more then feeding the normal angel diet.

I think pito has a good idea about posting this in the coral propagation forum as well. I think I will try to do that in a little while.