Sponge Habitat

[strich]

I was perusing my thread and had to repost bump your post. Great looking stuff.

While neglected a little, this is 10G three month old fishless Caribbean lagoon. I need some Peppermint shrim to handle Aptasia bloom.

Love that Simpsons Sideshow Bob lookin' mushroom(?) on the left there hah.

 

[Subsea]

I like Sponge Bob

 

[Subsea]

WELL: Due to a demand for ornamental seaweeds and a flatworm epidemic, I quadrupled dosed “flatworm exit” and after 30 days observation removed desirables to many small “grow out” tanks for further observation.

I have chosen this 30G tank to be Sponge Bob cleaning station with > 200 blue legged small hermit crabs. It was treated triple dose of flat worm exit and was also in 30 day observation/quarantine.

Because this 30G tank is fishless, the amphipods & copepods move about day & night and while observing copepods on glass, I saw several juvenile flatworms. While I normally allow natural predators to maintain order with pest; NOT SO WITH REGARDS TO FLATWORMS.
In the past, I have had Red Planaria that developed immunity to standard dosage of EXIT. SAME PROBLEM AS BACTERIA IMMUNITY TO ANTIBIOTICS.

PS: Last picture shows blue legged hermits cleaning junk from red tree sponge.

 

[Subsea]

Red Tree Sponge: Cleaning Station
Left fork has three large amphipods and right fork has a small blue leg hermit crab

 

[Subsea]

Knee jerk reaction to Red Planaria is never good. To remove a few stubborn flat worms, I overdosed “flatworm exit” and created havoc in snail population. Now I am performing 50% water changes every 12 hours. I added granulated activated carbon to Aquaclear 70 HOB filter. After the fourth 50% water change I will add 5G of water from 25year mature 75G display tank to inoculate bacteria.

 

[strich]

I love that you have the "special sauce" in that 25 year old tank to cure all ailments of other tanks. You should sell it haha.

 

[Subsea]

Cute: Special Sauce

I attribute this knowledge to @Timfish, who has done aquarium maintenance for 30 years in Austin. In solving a chronic algae problem for a client, he added 10G of heathy, mature water from a different ecosystem.

 

[Subsea]

In this case, dilution is the solution for pollution.

So, after adding 5 fold recommended dose of “flatworm exit” in an effort to eliminate Red Planaria, I lost 40% of snail population. The amphipod & Copepod populations are robust and active. Flame scallops are best bioindicator of water quality as they proudly display red.

The few flatworms that I still see are showing a pale white color as opposed to rusty red with a forked tail.

 

[Subsea]

As I remove more GSP from 75G tank, I am ready to bring some of the yellow ball sponges back from sponge cleaning station. The blue leg hermits are from the Caribbean as are the yellow ball sponge, which makes a compatible combo.

Sea Apple & feather duster are flying their colors.

 

[Subsea]

I couldn’t help myself. I just bought the most beautiful orange tree sponge. Tank upgrade requires ascetics work.

 

[Subsea]

Because it has a too tall sail, I moved the orange tree sponge and secured its branches around educator.

While wet hands were in the tank, I eliminated Aptasia on Xenia Rock by injected hot vinegar into biomass with little scraping it disintegrated into bits & pieces, some of which were eaten by the Tangs.

 

[strich]

That's a fantastic sponge! It's so big. How did you transport it between tanks? I heard they are very delicate.

 

[Subsea]

That's a fantastic sponge! It's so big. How did you transport it between tanks? I heard they are very delicate.

Sponges are not so delicate. The owner of Aquadome bent it in half to get into a bag to carry home. The first place that I put it, showed part of tree out of the water. If it continues to grow, I will make room in 24” deep 120G display.

 

[Genvid]

Can anyone identify what this is on my rock. I think it's a sponge, but I don't know if it's dangerous for a tank or not. It's dark blue

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I couldn’t help myself. I just bought the most beautiful orange tree sponge. Tank upgrade requires ascetics work.

I hope it thrives! I like the look a lot. If it was an SPS coral, it would be called some crazy name and sold for a very high price. lol.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Can anyone identify what this is on my rock. I think it's a sponge, but I don't know if it's dangerous for a tank or not. It's dark blue

There are thousands of marine sponge species. Some blue sponges are pests, but I'm not sure anyone can prove such just by looking at it.

Anyway, if you are worried, search on blue sponge pests and see what pictures folks have shown.

 

[Subsea]

Can anyone identify what this is on my rock. I think it's a sponge, but I don't know if it's dangerous for a tank or not. It's dark blue

That blue sponge looks nice. I have seen a blue sponge like that at Steve Tyree website in respect to cryptic zone filtration. However, you are in the light.

Did it grow from the rock or did it come in grown already on the rock.

 

[Subsea]

I hope it thrives! I like the look a lot. If it was an SPS coral, it would be called some crazy name and sold for a very high price. lol.

This variety is differrent than the tree sponges I get from GCE. I once got a similar sponge from Reeftopia, however the largest I ever saw was 6”. Aquadome had a red one as well. I was not confident enough to grab both of them. I have had it now for 72 hours and I can see it likes where it is. The dome was closed yesterday and if the red sponge is still there, I will get it.

 

[Subsea]

@Randy Holmes-Farley
I am confident that the Orange Tree will survive. I just received confirmation that the Red Tree is available. They cost $70.

I am trying two things that are a change for me and would like your thoughts on them.
1. I am reducing salinity from 1.03 spg to 1.028 spg.
Caribbean & Florida GulfCoast lagoons
often exceed that and that is where I get
sponges & janitors from. However, I was
recently given some SPS that were not happy
and have come down to 1.028spg.

2. I am running these systems between 73-75 degrees. I felt that higher temperatures favored bacteria and often generated stress to maintain faster growth.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

@Randy Holmes-Farley
I am confident that the Orange Tree will survive. I just received confirmation that the Red Tree is available. They cost $70.

I am trying two things that are a change for me and would like your thoughts on them.
1. I am reducing salinity from 1.03 spg to 1.028 spg.
Caribbean & Florida GulfCoast lagoons
often exceed that and that is where I get
sponges & janitors from. However, I was
recently given some SPS that were not happy
and have come down to 1.028spg.

2. I am running these systems between 73-75 degrees. I felt that higher temperatures favored bacteria and often generated stress to maintain faster growth.

I would not assume that sponges need the higher salinity that might be present in a lagoon, since they also presumably grow well in the open water, which would not typically be that high. I think lowering it to reach a happy medium for all involved makes perfect sense.

I have no idea on which temps might best serve sponges in a reef tank.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Sea-Surface-Height-left-and-sea-Surface-salinity-right-computed-by-the-Gulf-of-Mexico_fig8_277110384