Need sponges gone!

[jenniferreichardt]

I’ve tried to eradicate the blue and yellow sponge and tunicates that have engulfed many of my coral.

I’m considering a moorish idol. My tank is 180/65 sump, 4 years old. I currently have 4 tangs (yellow, Kole, sailfin, Atlantic blue) that I’m concerned about. Everyone is very peaceful now. Will the tangs fight with the MI? I want to keep the peace!

Will MI eat my maxima clams? I have found to feed them fresh clams in the half shell, but I do not want my huge maximas eaten.

If not a MI, what other creatures eat sponge? I’ve tried 2 Spanish dancer nudis at different times. They ate some and got stuck in my powerheads and gyres. My wrasse picked on them as well. Removing the wrasse is impossible as I’ve tried for 2 years to catch that guy.

Please help.

 

[2020 Worst Year]

Angels eat sponge

 

[jenniferreichardt]

Angels eat sponge

I have 2 Japanese swallowtails in there. Nothing.

 

[2020 Worst Year]

I have 2 Japanese swallowtails in there. Nothing.

yea they r reef safe angels get a gold flake or something or a regal

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

From what I've read, Genicanthus species angels specifically don't eat sponges while others do.

From another of my posts:

Lots of things will eat sponges, but I don’t know if any of them (that won’t starve like nudibranchs would) are totally reef-safe - almost anything that might eat sponges are a risk to corals too (and, in some cases, inverts as well). Beyond that, not every sponge eating critter will eat every sponge, so there’s no guarantee any critter you get would eat the sponges you want them to.

To quote another of my posts:

Manual removal is almost certainly your best option here (for why, see the first quote below, for manual removal control ideas, see the other two):

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.

The best way I've heard to control sponge growth at this point is to use a steel straw to scrape and siphon out the sponge you want to remove. Sometimes you can create bad conditions for them and kill them off that way, but that's typically much harder and not always effective.

Some other sponge removal methods:

Other suggestions include exposing the sponge to air (obviously not a guaranteed solution, and definitely not viable for this situation); hydrogen peroxide dipping the sponge (again, not viable here); injecting the sponge with hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, boiling water, or air; microbubbles in the display; and a few more. Predation is not usually a good solution for this issue

Basically, if the sponges have enough food and enough trace elements (which for most sponges includes silicates) to meet their needs, then you’ll see their populations booming.

If you can figure out what’s allowing them to thrive in your tank, then you can deal with that root cause and get rid of them.

All of that said, if you’re really determined to try biological controls (i.e. predation) for your sponges, here are some known sponge eaters you might be able to find in the hobby:

-Angelfish (particularly large angels, from what I’ve seen)

-The pencil urchin Eucidaris tribuloides*

-Starfish (quite a few different species eat sponges, but not all of them do; aside from Aquilonastra starfish - known in the hobby as Asterina starfish - starfish have abysmal survival rates past ~8-13 months, so I’d suggest to avoid these)

-Moorish Idols (these have abysmal survival rates pretty much regardless of how long they’ve been in captivity, so I can’t recommend them either)

-Nudibranchs (they only eat like 1 to 4 specific species of sponge total, and they will not branch out beyond those species - please do not buy these, they will starve)

-Some trunkfish and (typically large) filefish reportedly eat sponges (and inverts)

I’m sure there are some other species I’ve missed (particularly fish species), but that pretty well covers the known sponge eaters.

*Info on the pencil urchin diet:

What is this? Reef safe?

Pls help I’d and lmk if safe or not

www.reef2reef.com

 

[jenniferreichardt]

yea they r reef safe angels get a gold flake or something or a regal

Will they eat my clams? Or acros?

 

[2020 Worst Year]

Will they eat my clams? Or acros?

clams probs maybe not tho only 1 way to find out

 

[i cant think]

Will they eat my clams? Or acros?

Tridacna clams seem to be ignored by angels. I wouldn’t trust an MI to not go for them or a larger Angel species (Imperator, Queen, King etc). I’d go for a Regal Angel personally however be careful with your tangs as you have some aggressive species in that mix that may not be nice to new angels or most fish that will peck at sponges.

 

[HudsonReefer2.0]

Tridacna clams seem to be ignored by angels. I wouldn’t trust an MI to not go for them or a larger Angel species (Imperator, Queen, King etc). I’d go for a Regal Angel personally however be careful with your tangs as you have some aggressive species in that mix that may not be nice to new angels or most fish that will peck at sponges.

Appreciate my regals @i cant think , but not in my mixed reef.

 

[dwest]

When I was carbon dosing with vinegar, sponge growth in my tank went through the roof. So I stopped carbon dosing. I’m wondering what is causing your fast sponge growth.