sponge diet

[Isernhagen]

What do carribean sponges eat? These are bright orange lettuce shaped and large branching arms type. Another is yellow and shaped like a baseball with dimples like a golf ball. Another is solid and orange. I am concerned that they may slowly die and increase my nitrates.

 

[Airwolf75]

Very small things like phytoplankton and smaller. Were talking like single celled need a microscope to see small.

 

[suta4242]

You'd need to identify the type of sponge to make an educated guess about the diet. Large volumes of phyto and sometimes bacterioplankton might be needed. With phyto I think if you could supply it live, it wouldn't pollute the water so much.


good luck!

 

[tatuvaaj]

There should be no large differences in the diet of marine sponges. Sponges are fine filterers but are sometimes able to eat surprisingly large particles (still very small in human terms ) Sponges are especially well adapted to eat bacteria, they are able to filter bacterioplankton down to only a few thousand per milliliter which is really low concentration.

One prominent feature of sponges is that they harbor very rich and variable symbiotic bacteria. A sponge usually has several different kinds of bacteria living inside them. With the these bacteria, many sponges are able to utilize dissolved organic matter (DOM) very effectively.

In my experience most sponges grow best with commercial invertebrate foods that are small enough like ESV's SDMP. One very beneficial food source is organic carbon (vodka, sugar and commercial alternatives) which promotes bacterioplankton growth and probably also helps symbiotic bacteria inside sponges.

 

[suta4242]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15381844#post15381844 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tatuvaaj


In my experience most sponges grow best with commercial invertebrate foods that are small enough like ESV's SDMP. One very beneficial food source is organic carbon (vodka, sugar and commercial alternatives) which promotes bacterioplankton growth and probably also helps symbiotic bacteria inside sponges.

Are you talking about large stand alone sponges or the ones that come attached to LR? The large ones are stunning but very few seem to have any success keeping them?

 

[tatuvaaj]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15381869#post15381869 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by suta4242
Are you talking about large stand alone sponges or the ones that come attached to LR? The large ones are stunning but very few seem to have any success keeping them?

Both, actually :thumbsup: Naturally, the larger the specimen the more food it needs.