Possibly photosynthetic sponge ID, Question about Growth and care

[Ron Reefman]

I definitely learned the hard way that Emeralds will eat anything if they're not well fed. I never thought he'd go after the sponge or one of my Gorgs. I just gotta remember to feed him. He loves his algae wafers and that usually settles him right down. Otherwise he doesn't bug my corals besides climbing on them sometimes.

I've been spritzing the sponge with coral smoothie during feedings and nothing is really changing. Which I guess is good since its not dying The nubby on the right side is definitely getting bigger so I'm just gonna try to leave it alone.

IMHO the particle size of the 'stuff' in the coral smoothie is way to big for the sponge to ingest. Maybe some food like the smoothie that is allowed to soak for some period of time so it can decay and breakdown into smaller elements, maybe? And sponges feed slowly over time, they capture food, for sure, but not like coral or anemones. It's more about the flow of water through the sponge. So I doubt that spot feeding it will do any good at all.

 

[johnike]

Not for me I have tons of them over 2 inches long

Pics, please!!

 

[Dkuhlmann]

All I hear in response to your request are Crickets :lmao:

Back to the sponges, the ones in my DT and sump are very hardy and I've pulled them out many times and had none die off. These are an encrusting type of sponge and mostly in a mottled green/yellow ish color really rather drab. I've also got some pink and some black ones along with an off white. For whatever reason I have no problem growing these sponges.

 

[johnike]

All I hear in response to your request are Crickets :lmao:

Rumor has it I'm on several ignore lists.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Aw John, say it's not so...

Dk, a lot of sponges grow in our tanks, I have them too. But for the most part (not always, but for the most part) they like to grow under rocks not out in the open. And yes, most of them tolerate being exposed to the air. I even have a couple that spent over 2 weeks in a Brute full of recycled landscape freshwater in the hot SW Florida sun! Now they are back in my new 125g set up and still alive!

But on the other hand, I've brought home 10 to 12 sponges collected in shallow reef flats in the Florida Keys. No air exposure, water changes, all the other critters survive. But in my tank for a 7 to 30 days and the have wasted away. Go figure.

 

[ArtsyAxolotl]

I don't know if my sponge is able to eat the CS, but its definitely still growing so I'm happy. I can see new, less lumpy growth starting to cover the glue where I stuck it to the rock and the nub on the right is much longer now. I just couldn't figure out if the webby stuff was growing or dying, and wondered if anyone knew.

I might still try that suggestion to soak the smoothie a bit to break it down.

So far my emerald is getting half an algae wafer a day and it seems to keep him calm enough to leave the sponge and the gorgs alone, so maybe I can get some more sponge eventually! They're really cool!

 

[johnike]

Not for me I have tons of them over 2 inches long

Still waiting for pics