Sponge getting out of hand

[ryeguyy84]

I have this sponge growing on the bottom of my tank that is getting out of hand. It started as this about 6 months ago:

Now it looks like this:

It's killed all the Zoas on the Rock and it's making its way up. It's not possible to remove the rock can I somehow limit its growth? Was thinking of injecting air into it but didn't want to kill the whole thing.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Tough call. I wish I had some ideas for you, but I don't. I did want to say that we see lots of zoas in the Keys that seem to like growing in and among the sponges. The look is very similar to your photos. I've harvested small sections of sponge with my limit of 10 zoas in it (there are 2 of us snorkeling together so 5 polyps each is the legal limit). When I transfer them to my shallow reef tank the sponges do get exposed to the air (intentionally) and over the next 4 to 8 weeks the sponges do die off. So doing some injecting with air could work well... mabey to the point of killing most or all of the sponge. But I'd rather keep the zoas alive even if it means doing in the sponge.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[Ryan1190]

I also have a sponge getting too big for my liking. Following for answers

 

[Sk8r]

Exposure to air so that the holes dry out will kill or at least seriously damage a sponge. If you can remove the rock, leaving it out for a while would help. If you can remove it from the tank, that would be best, even if you have to sacrifice some polyps.

 

[ryeguyy84]

Thanks for the responses, there is no way to get the rock out, it supports the entire structure.

Maybe it's not killing all the Zoas, hmm maybe I'll leave it for a little while longer and see what happens.

I might try one of my cats insulin needles to inject air into it.