Red Sponge Care Hitchhiker Help

[Untamed Rose]

Ok new tank 3 weeks along now..still cycling. Latest levels. Ammonia 0, No3 80, No2 10, ph 8.0, Alk 80 (I'm just happy first day with 0 ammonia, yes I know rest are all off) Mild algae bloom going on(no cleaning crew ATM...have a small package otw to help that)

Purchased some live cultured rock from FL...came with lots of nice hitchhikers, lost some of course

Also have this, pretty sure it's a sponge....and it's red. Two inches tall half inch thick...not an encrusting one it's just rooted(?) at the bottom.... AND pretty sure it's not doing so hot...

SO I know sponges are considered an expert thing...any experts(I'll take wanna bes too) have a suggestions on care. I've googled and they seem to range in every suggested care category...such has High flow vs low, high light vs non needed..SO...If this one was in your tank what would you do to maybe help it along?

 

[Untamed Rose]

OK stronger current seems to be helping its puffed some

 

[Ron Reefman]

Any idea where this LR comes from? As in what state or country?

In moving this rock around, was the sponge ever out of the water, even for just a few seconds?

I don't think most sponges are photosynthetic, so light isn't much of an issue. They feed on very small particles in the water as they 'filter' it through their colony. So it will need regular feeding of very fine foods, along the lines of coral foods.

But more importantly, most sponges, not all, but most, can't tolerate, even for very short periods of time, being out of the water. The exceptions tend to be the sponges that grow under the LR in our tanks. They need no light and live in low flow areas and seem to tolerate at least short term exposure to the air. Sponges take in water through small inlets or pours, they filter out food and exhaust water out through bigger holes. By being exposed to the air for even a very short time, most (not all, but the vast majority) end up getting air trapped inside the pours or openings and they can't expel it. So it ends up blocking the sponge's ability to take in water and filter out food. So areas of the colony start to die and then the entire colony dies a long slow deterioration over an extended period of time. A small sponge may die off slowly over 3 to 6 weeks and bigger ones can take months.

Sorry to only have bad news, but I love sponges and have killed a few. I have 2 beautiful photosynthetic sponges in my tank. They are fairly new to me and small (2" to 3" in diameter) and very colorful (deep red/purple and dark blue/violet). The good news is that over the first couple of months, instead of deteriorating, they are growing. One has doubled in the fist 10 weeks and the other has grown about 25% in a month. I've collected several different species in the wild (Florida Keys), never let them out of the water and they have always deteriorated away over a few weeks to a couple of months.

I sincerely wish you the best of luck and I'd love to hear that it survives long term. Sponges can be crazy cool looking. I love the ones we see when snorkeling shallow water flats in the Florida Keys. But they just don't acclimate to aquarium life very well at all IMHO.

 

[Untamed Rose]

It's from florida, came from floridaliverock.com/

out of water umm....it was shipped and it wasnt shipped in a bag full of water more like shipped really damp. :/ So is it done?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Almost impossible to say. There are literally thousands of species and so many of them are impossible to tell apart without DNA testing. I sure wouldn't give up on it. If you can keep it going it would be very cool to have in your tank. Given it traveled as damp and not 'in water' and that you have had it for 2 weeks while cycling does bode well for it's possible survival.

 

[Untamed Rose]

What product do you use to feed your sponges? I have marine snow....and frozen brine shrimp atm pretty sure neither is going to cut it.

Its liking a Harder flow, and its more puffed...I'm like hopeful atm Has two oscillating holes I couldn't even see before.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Marine snow is a good choice. I take flake food and mash it into a fine dust with a mortar & pestle.

But then I feed my reef a very wide variety of foods. Aqua-Tech sells AZOX Coral Micro Diet and Micro Nutrition NAUPS. I won them in a raffle at a club event and my corals and especially my rock flower anemones seem to really like them. But I use a lot of different foods mixed in a big beer mug and fed to the tanks with a turkey baster. I turn all the pumps off, feed, wait 10 minutes, turn the wavemakers back on for a minute (no flow to the sump) then no pumps again for another 10 minutes, then everything back on. I like to let food settle on the corals. Then stir it up a bit and let it settle again.

The 2 hole are probably the exhale/exhaust vents. In the Keys we see big ball sponges that have a circle of big vent holes at the top. When the flow of water is slack, you can see the cleaner, less salty water flowing out the vents into the salty ocean water.

We'll be there next week, if we get a good pic I'll post it here.