Porifera/sponge emergency!

[Lara213a]

Hi guys,
I'm completely new to this area and also not coming as a hobby-aquarist, but as a marine biologist.
I just started working with sponges and have ahuge problem..
I have a quite simple set-up with a constant flow through of natural, brackish water, that flows into an oxygenated header tank and is dispersed via gravity! into small 1.5 l tanks. Each tank contains one sponge, Halichondria panicea. So no filter, no pump, just air that is introduced via a bubble stone into the header tank, not into the single aquaria.
Each sponge is basically covered in gas bubbles :( Some started flowting at the surface as they are so buoyant with all the gas in their canal system. I suspect super tiny bubbles, that accumulate at some connection points into bigger bubbles to be the problem, but Im not sure.
Does anyone have any idea what I could try or has anyone had the same problem already?
One more thing: YES, the sponges were submerged at any point of time, I collected them myself from the field and brought them to the lab. :)

 

[AlexG]

Do you have some pictures of the setup? How long as the system been setup before the sponges were added? Is this a closed system or is this system open and supplied from the natural environment of the sponges? If there is water flow with surface agitation in the tanks then there is no need for an additional air stone in the system as the surface agitation will introduce oxygen into the water. If you are getting lots of bubbles in the gravity feed for the tanks containing sponges you could also try to create a bubble trap using filter floss. I might have some other suggestions for solutions based on the answers to the above questions. I hope we can help you to resolve this issue. Welcome to R2R.

 

[Humblefish]

The only thing I know about H. panicea is that it is better equipped to endure exposure to air than most other sponges.

Maybe someone on the #reefsquad will know more about them.

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!
Pictures yes please and thank you.

Are you feeding them and do you have filtration in the system? Oftimes it's a build up of organics and proteins increasing in the water. Activated carbon may help with this a bit.

 

[Lara213a]

Hi guys!
Thanks so much for the replies!
Sorry fot not uploading photos, my phone died while I was at work on Friday, so I couldnt take any pictures.
BUT I have good news, during the weekend it turned out that the sponges were shedding which took all the bubbles away! I took a picture of that, I dont know if you can see, but t he old tissue is basically floating to the surface with bubbles attached to it... Now they are almost done with shedding and looking much better, most of them sink to the bottom again.

AND filter floss was a great idea to reduce the bubbles!!! I just put it in front of my inflow tube and it catches all the bubbles, really cheap, fast and easy way! Thank you so much AlexG!

And also to answer some other questions: Im not feeding them, the water comes directly from the Baltic Sea, so contains a lot of their natural food source bacteria. Unfortunately, before entering my system, it runs through a large biological filter with loads of bacteria that reduce the oxygen substantially, which is why additional aeration is needed.

Thanks again and have a good day!

 

[Lara213a]

Hi guys!
Thanks so much for the replies!
Sorry fot not uploading photos, my phone died while I was at work on Friday, so I couldnt take any pictures.
BUT I have good news, during the weekend it turned out that the sponges were shedding which took all the bubbles away! I took a picture of that, I dont know if you can see, but t he old tissue is basically floating to the surface with bubbles attached to it... Now they are almost done with shedding and looking much better, most of them sink to the bottom again.

AND filter floss was a great idea to reduce the bubbles!!! I just put it in front of my inflow tube and it catches all the bubbles, really cheap, fast and easy way! Thank you so much AlexG!

And also to answer some other questions: Im not feeding them, the water comes directly from the Baltic Sea, so contains a lot of their natural food source bacteria. Unfortunately, before entering my system, it runs through a large biological filter with loads of bacteria that reduce the oxygen substantially, which is why additional aeration is needed.

Thanks again and have a good day!

 

[K. Steven]

I get something similar with Cinachyrella alloclada, but I think it's cyanobacteria photosynthesizing on the surface of the sponge. I use a strong powerhead pointed at the surface for gas exchange, which may work in your flow-through system, if you want to avoid the bubbles.

I'm curious, are you isolating eribulin mesylate from this species of Halichondria?