Sponges in a reef tank

[defigart]

My appoligies if this is miscatagorised. I couldn't find anywhere else that would fit.

 

Is is possible, and feasible to keep sponges in a reef aquarium? All you jokesters, I mean the living animal(s), not the scrub pads.

 

If so what kinds are forum members keeping?

[DChemist]

I bought an orange paddle sponge a year and a half ago, but it wasted away and was completely gone within a couple of months. I suspect it starved.

 

I do have several different hitchhiker sponges; the little white pineapple sponges, some sort of small ball sponge, an orange encrusting sponge, and several convoluted green sponges. I don't do anything special for them, they're just growing on their own.

[ThePremiumAquarium]

There are probably 6-8 different kinds of sponges just growing all over in my system. Several were hitchhikers and some just seem to have popped up and continue to grow. All of the sponges that are sold frequently in stores, like orange fan sponge or ball sponge tend to not do so well in captivity from what I have experienced and from what I have read. Some can be kept for several months if kept in shaded areas of the tank, but most all end up slowly whithering away.

 

Good pieces of fresh, cured live rock are the best places to find sponges that seem to do well and grow in captivity.

 

I have yellow, grey, white, orange, and purple and green leather-like sponges, as well as several others, mainly on the underside or in cracks and holes in my rocks.

 

Garrett

[Michael7979]

Go to Steve Tyrees site and read his sponge filtration article maybe that will have what you are looking for.

 

www.reeffarmers.com

[JManrow]

Yes. They are filter feeders and many do well in the reef aquarium. An excellent book on sponges in the aquarium is "The Porifera (Living Sponges) - Their Biology, Physiology and Natural Filtration Integration" by Steve Tyree. The book should be in our PNWMAS Library. http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2608

Visit Steve's site Dynamic Ecomorphology http://www.dynamicecomorphology.com/ The "Environmental Gradient" system is a very interesting concept. I had been working with this natural filtration for some time now, but most of my tanks are down now till after we move.

Steve will probably have some of his books and CD's for sale at the NW Coral Farmer's Market in August, and it should be a good opportunity to discuss the system with him.

[Nyles]

I have many that are hitchers, they seem to do very well, there should be no feeding or other requirements. My first thought would be they filter silicate from the water column, but I have never researched it.

[defigart]

Thanks everyone,

 

Its wonderful to hear. I want to use my tank as an education tool. I want to keep as many animals from different groups as possible.

 

What are some other unusual things people are keeping?

[pledosophy]

Jay, I have setup my little shabby environmental gradient sump, without the added critters in my 20g sump on my 65g. Just lot's of LR, no light, no skimmer. I went to pull out a piece of LR for a frag and was shocked at the amount of sponges and other unidentified life thqat was growing on it. So far I deem it a succsess. My nitrates remain at zero and the tank grows no nuissance algaes, corals are thriving. Admitedly the tank has only been setup since March 3,2007 and does house taxifolia in the display. The elements seem to be working well together. I wish I had the space to do what Tyree is actually suggesting. But so far IME it works well. Thanks again for turning me onto it.