Callospongia (Ear Sponge)

[rhoople]

I have a 92 Gal. Corner Tank. I have encountered in the last year a devistating form of sponge that no one has ever seen before. I took pieces of it everyware and no one knew what it was. The closest I got to an answer was it was some form of macro alga, so I treated it as such, with no success. Then I opened the book "Invertebrates, A Quick Guide, by Julian Sprung) and there it was first sponge in chapter two. I lost literally thousands of $ with the rapid proliferration of this sponge. I had to take all the rock, well most of it, and scrub it clean. I am now seeing it apppear again on some rocks. My question is, can a Nudibranch help with controlling this form of sponge? Will I be safe when I start to reinvest in all the corals and inverts I lost, or will it reek havoc on my new additions? I do not plan on introducing any sponges of any kind in the future.

 

I started this tank in 2001, so it was well established, when I noticed this #$@%.

If any one out there has ever encountered this, could you please help me eliminate this sponge from my tank? And would a Nudibranch be a solution?

Thank you in advance for any help I can get!

 

 

 

I guess this question is too much for this forum!!

 

 

I would do as you have suggested, but I have a very large finger coral attached to it, so thats out of the question. It was the only thhing that made it through the epidemic the first time. I would still like to know if a Nudibranch would help here.

[Reef Gator]

I would "cook" the rock. Basically, store it in complete darkness with a powerhead and heater. Change the water every couple weeks for a few months. You'll kill off everything except the bacteria and hopefully a little coraline. Do a quick search for cooking live rock to find others' experiences.

[rhoople]

I wish Tony Calfo, and Bob Fenner read these posts. I could really use the help of someone who's been at this a long time. Myself, I've only had A reef system for 14 years, so I'm kind of a newbe to this.

As far as cooking live rock, that would surly kill the sponge, and everything else. Might just as well bleach the thing. Not the results I'm really looking for here. Looking for a more, or less radical way of dealing with this. I think I'll try the Nudibranch, and see what happens. I can always remove it if it starts to dsetroy good things.

[Pinner Reef]

I recently had a problem with invasive sponges as well. I found that between a FW dip and injection with air they died out. Give those a try if you can.

 

-pinner

[rhoople]

You would have to see this stuff. It's like you poured latex paint onto something, and let it dry. What you have is a thing that feels like rubber, and lays pretty flat. I tried the FWD to no avail. I can peal this stuf off but it rapidly claims it's previous territory.