What is this sponge?

[saltyfish24]

My Petco was selling this piece of rock with a sponge on it, so I gave it a try. It's in QT tank and had a big bristle worm in the rock. Does anyone know what kind of sponge this is? Things I'm trying to find out:

• Is it photosynthetic?
• Is it possible to pop it off the rock and move it to my main tank?
• How can I propagate it?

I culture phyto, so I'm adding phyto to the QT tank for it to eat. I know some basics, like not letting it touch air and adding some silica to the water. But that's about it.

This same rock has some very white sponge inside it also. I'm guess that white sponge isn't photosynthetic, but I can't even take a good photo of it to ask questions about it.

 

[Subsea]

Yes, that is a cryptic sponge. I have them in cryptic refugium that is full of live rock and mud. I have also seen them on dark side of rocks in display tank.

Cryptic sponges require silicates and they consume DOC. They also consume POC which includes larvae & phytoplankton.

 

[EnterName]

Sponges have absolutely insane regenerative abilities which means you could theoretically just scrape a tiny bit of it off and smear it onto another rock and it should regrow on both rocks, as long as enough cells stay in place. Check out posts #82 and #83 (page 5, the 2nd and 3rd post) in my microscopy thread to see what I mean in action: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/microscopy-thread.1138845/post-14426492

If you are using the R2R app, you will need to use the webbrowser or click the links in the posts below the videos, as videos still seem to be buggy in the current version. They are working on resolving the issue.

 

[saltyfish24]

Yes, that is a cryptic sponge. I have them in cryptic refugium that is full of live rock and mud. I have also seen them on dark side of rocks in display tank.

Cryptic sponges require silicates and they consume DOC. They also consume POC which includes larvae & phytoplankton

Thanks. I'll stop lighting them because I thought it was photosynthetic. How do you know it's cryptic? I couldn't find any matching photos of it.

 

[EnterName]

Yes, that is a cryptic sponge. I have them in cryptic refugium that is full of live rock and mud. I have also seen them on dark side of rocks in display tank.

Cryptic sponges require silicates and they consume DOC. They also consume POC which includes larvae & phytoplankton

Thanks. I'll stop lighting them because I thought it was photosynthetic. How do you know it's cryptic? I couldn't find any matching photos of it.

I assume Subsea knows the genus or it would already be difficult to distinguish between calcium and silicate-based sponges just using a single image. It's a bit fuzzy which could be a hint. The color doesn't help in this case as zooxanthellae tend to be brown so many photosynthetic sponges are brown as well.

 

[saltyfish24]

I assume Subsea knows the genus or it would already be difficult to distinguish between calcium and silicate-based sponges just using a single image. It's a bit fuzzy which could be a hint. The color doesn't help in this case as zooxanthellae tend to be brown so many photosynthetic sponges are brown as well.

I got it from Petco. The rock was exposed to light, but it's petco lights if that helps? The aquatics expert told me she had seen it there for about 3 weeks, and before that the rock we turned around facing the other way. I don't think it was very exposed to light, but I also don't know the range of PAR photosynthetic sponges take.

 

[EnterName]

I assume Subsea knows the genus or it would already be difficult to distinguish between calcium and silicate-based sponges just using a single image. It's a bit fuzzy which could be a hint. The color doesn't help in this case as zooxanthellae tend to be brown so many photosynthetic sponges are brown as well.

I got it from Petco. The rock was exposed to light, but it's petco lights if that helps? The aquatics expert told me she had seen it there for about 3 weeks, and before that the rock we turned around facing the other way. I don't think it was very exposed to light, but I also don't know the range of PAR photosynthetic sponges take.

This fits Subsea's description of having them on the dark side of rocks. It will probably be fine without any light.

As long as sponges don't grow aggressively over corals, I would consider them beneficial filter feeders. It's possible you will have many of them soon