Anyone have experience growing encrusting sponges on live rock for food?

[livinlifeinBKK]

I still think this rock is about as top quality as you can get seeing as it wasn't buried or maricultured like a lot of live rock available in the states, it was simply taken from the Gulf of Thailand raw and had like a 2 hour drive from collection to the shop so I might just get some extra

 

[ying yang]

Try identifying a fish like that with a foreign language being primarily used!

Google lens not 100% accurate 100 off the time but imo isn't far off especially with fish,just take picture then go to google lens,mine is on home page off phone then press on picture you took then gives a match.
First picture below I googled image then took screenshot then went google lens then pressed picture then search results at bottom under it and correct.
Outlined is my Google lens on home page if you not aware of Google lens,if you are fair enough

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Google lens not 100% accurate 100 off the time but imo isn't far off especially with fish,just take picture then go to google lens,mine is on home page off phone then press on picture you took then gives a match.
First picture below I googled image then took screenshot then went google lens then pressed picture then search results at bottom under it and correct.
Outlined is my Google lens on home page if you not aware of Google lens,if you are fair enough

Wasn't aware of that function before. Thanks!

 

[ying yang]

Wasn't aware of that function before. Thanks!

Very much welcome and imo its brilliant at identifying fish, corals is so so as so many similar but works on any picture off anything you got,
Goodluck

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Just a little more info on sponge toxicity:

Just to put this out there - the problem with using biological controls (i.e. something that eats it) with sponges is that there are a ton of different sponges, some of which look indistinguishable from others. Some of these sponges are inedible or extremely undesirable foods to some species (either because of chemical defenses* or just because of taste preferences) while being highly desirable to other species. So, even if you pull in a known sponge-eating species of fish/starfish/whatever, there's no guarantee it will eat the sponge you want it to eat. Also, many of these sponge-eating species eat other things (like coral) that you might not want them eating.

Long story short, manual removal is probably your best option for sponges until more study has been on both specific sponges and specific sponge-eaters, but you can try it if you want.

*Just as a note on the chemical defenses of sponges, many sponges produce chemicals to avoid being eaten. Some of these chemicals are more generalized, some of them are specifically anti-fish, some are specifically anti-echinoderm (starfish, urchin, etc.), etc. So, again, some things might eat one sponge but not another, and because of the whole indistinguishable thing mentioned above, the sponges that are and are not being eaten may look pretty much identical (some may be distinguished/ID'ed under microscopic investigation, others may need to be DNA tested to be distinguished/ID'ed).

Just my two cents here.

 

[livinlifeinBKK]

Just a little more info on sponge toxicity:

Oh, that particular piece isn't anything special in that case...as you saw they have over 60 more beautiful pieces. I just thought he might like a snack before learning about possible toxicity.