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Sponges for science


McSqueak

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We're setting up a small saltwater system at home for the purpose of studying sea sponges.

It's 20 gallons & has been cycling with only live rock for a month. We just got our first macro inhabitant yesterday, a 2" orange ball sponge that was obsessively not exposed to air on our end of the transfer. We've been working with our local fish store for advice & researching everything, but -- as you all know -- there are a million variables. Would love expert advice to help minimize our inevitable noobie errors.

Our plan is to feed it Phycopure reef blend, 20 drops every other day (with the filter on to provide a flow). The lights (full spectrum) cycle on for 5 hours a day (to keep algae low since we don't have any cleaning crew critters). Just added PhosGuard to the filter, also to limit algae. Ultimately we would like to remove small biopsies of the sponge for research purposes, which we will ideally be able to do without killing it. 

Any suggestions for things we should be doing differently?

Again, this tank is for research rather than aesthetics, so we are documenting everything & trying to be super-minimalist. Thank you!

new sponge setup.jpg

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Well, I can tell you that biopsies shouldn't harm an animal which can reasonably be cut into pieces. 

 

You should focus on maintaining a healthy ecosystem, not trying to keep the tank sterile. Encourage algae, and add things to eat it. If you can get a healthy, biodiverse tank working, you should be able to maintain at least a small amount of life in the water for your sponge to feed on. 

 

I would guess that you need a stronger pump. Circulation is vital in reef tanks.

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30 minutes ago, Tired said:

Well, I can tell you that biopsies shouldn't harm an animal which can reasonably be cut into pieces. 

 

You should focus on maintaining a healthy ecosystem, not trying to keep the tank sterile. Encourage algae, and add things to eat it. If you can get a healthy, biodiverse tank working, you should be able to maintain at least a small amount of life in the water for your sponge to feed on. 

 

I would guess that you need a stronger pump. Circulation is vital in reef tanks.

Thank you for the feedback. Any suggestions for straightforward, sponge-friendly bio-diversifying? I agree with you that a more diverse environment is likely a healthier one. But where to even start? 

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Elizabeth94

For something like this, I probably would have started with live rock instead of dry rock. You would have gotten a ton of diversity and since it is such a small tank, taking any unwanted hitchhikers would be pretty easy. Sponges for me have always done better in mature tanks. Otherwise they just melted away. However, you could always add a small piece to what you have now. That will seed the tank with the goodies. 
 

Interesting though. Since this tank is specifically for sponges, I'm sure you will have better luck keeping certain kinds because you will be focusing on them rather than corals/fish. 

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If I were you, I'd order some really, really good quality live rock online. For one thing, it'll come in with sponges! I think a couple of the places that sell really good stuff will ship it in water, even, which means little to no die-off. You can put it in any fish-safe container (rubbermaid can work) with saltwater and a pump to move the water, test the water until you stop seeing ammonia from die-off, and then put it straight into your tank. You're unlikely to get hitchhikers that will bother your sponges- the few bad hitchhikers that come in are generally interested in other things. It's the most straightforward method possible, and will get you all sorts of cool animals, but not particularly cheap. It will very likely get you sponges that you can't buy anywhere else, though, particularly if you request them from the seller.

 

If you can't or don't want to do that, just try to get some live rock from somewhere. Possibly order some macroalgae online, that will bring some life. Especially calcified macros. You want to find things that have life on them, basically. A copepod culture won't hurt. 

 

Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if this one does pretty badly for now. Sponges need fairly mature tanks. When sponges do well in new tanks, it's because that new tank is one started with good live rock. The whole point of getting a tank mature is developing your biofilter and biodiversity, which live rock comes with.

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On 7/12/2020 at 6:27 PM, Elizabeth94 said:

For something like this, I probably would have started with live rock instead of dry rock. You would have gotten a ton of diversity and since it is such a small tank, taking any unwanted hitchhikers would be pretty easy. Sponges for me have always done better in mature tanks. Otherwise they just melted away. However, you could always add a small piece to what you have now. That will seed the tank with the goodies. 
 

Interesting though. Since this tank is specifically for sponges, I'm sure you will have better luck keeping certain kinds because you will be focusing on them rather than corals/fish. 

Thanks. We actually have some live rock and some dry rock... about 40%/60%, and there are definitely some little critters that hitchhiked in. This and the suggestion above that we add some more good quality live rock, macroalgae, or copepod culture is being taken seriously -- we are looking for good additions now.

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