Seahorse and Sponge

[JustDavidP]

Here's a shot of "Seabiscuit" and her new hitching post... a red tree sponge.

These sponges are beautiful, but you need to know a lil' about them. They can NOT be exposed to air AT ALL. If air gets trapped in their pores, they will start to die from the inside out. They are best kept with decent current so sediments don't accumulate on them. They also appreciate subdued lighting and aren't fond of being under MH. If you have them in a reef, place them in the sand and preferably with some shading. They also need feedings. If you have a nutrient rich tank, no worries. If not, you may want to target with DTs or Phytofeast...something organic.

Enjoy the eye candy. It's not a great shot. Bowfronts are hard to use for photography. I'll take better pics of the sponge tonight.

Dave

[dakar]

Hmmm... we were under the impression that sticking them in the sand really wasn't such a good thing either. The pores that were under the sand would rapidly be plugged with sand/silt. instead we sorta stand ours on a rock and gently prop it up between other rocks.

[JustDavidP]

*whispering* it's not stuck in the sand... it's on a rock, which is in the sand. What you see in the picture is the sponge. The flat rock is artistically hidden from view.

D

[dakar]

*Pssssstt* gotcha

[Reef_Angel]

Our had the whole top layer die off of it and sadly, I was going to give up on it and throw it away. Then we got our sailfin tang, and one of the first things she did was take a bite out of the dead area of the sponge. She's totally cleaned off all the dead stuff on the sponge and it look much skinnier, but pretty darn healthy! What do you think, did Ciara of the Sea save my carrot sponge?

[ramoth41]

Good shot! and LOVE :love4: the name! How approriate for a seahorse!
I've always wanted to try my hand at them but truthfuly loosing one would just break my heart! They are so darned cute! Maybe some day.....
sarah

[JustDavidP]

Angel, I think your fish may have helped you clean the sponge. If you get areas dying again, you can use a razor or scalpel to cut the dead part off.

Sarah... My ponies' names are: Seabiscuit, Whinnie, Pegasus, and Little Jeff. My kids named em

[Reef_Angel]

She did a great job on it. It would have been hard for me to clean it up and keep it under water the whole time. So I'm very greatful to her! I take it these are extremely slow growers. It never seens to grow in height which is fine. I just want to see it build it's girth back up now. I may have more than one now. There's an area that's very thin and barely holding on. I might as well frag it off and let it be a new one on it's own. This is the most info we've ever been able to find out on our orange sponge!

[JustDavidP]

There's lots of information about sponges, including tree sponges at wetwebmedia. However, if you take Fenner and Calfo's word for it, we shouldn't be putting tree sponges in our systems. They say that they'll never live. A buddy of mine has had one for three years and it is fine. Just need to follow the rules... keep em wet, keep em fed.

D

[Grandmaster_Toad]

AWESOME SPONGE SPECIMEN!!! I have always really like sponges.
Ok..the Seahorse is cool too...lol. Love to see more pics when Sea Bisquit is less camera shy...hee hee.
GT