Saltwater sponge -care-requirments-

[Dylan5359]

Anything you know about them will be helpful. I do know they are not to be exposed to air though. Salinity? Light wattage? Food? Thanks.

 

[Fishguy2727]

Normal reef conditions should be right.

What tank are they going in?

The best kinds are the kind that will come in on live rock. I found a nice little piece in one of the invert tanks at one LFS that had five different types of sponges on it (encrusting: pink, yellow, blue, purple, and black). These types of sponges should do well on normal reef tank filter feeding. The fancier ones that you would buy individually will simply require so much feeding that they will likely starve or your tank will become an algae farm.

 

[Gti_Leo]

i was watchign an episode of LA fish guy and he was servising a 320 gallon fish only tank that had a puffer in it that was carrying blue sponge in its belly and either pooped it our threw it up and it started spreadting on all the decerative corals. there was a queen angel that thrived due to feeding off the sponge

 

[Dylan5359]

Normal reef conditions should be right.

What tank are they going in?

The best kinds are the kind that will come in on live rock. I found a nice little piece in one of the invert tanks at one LFS that had five different types of sponges on it (encrusting: pink, yellow, blue, purple, and black). These types of sponges should do well on normal reef tank filter feeding. The fancier ones that you would buy individually will simply require so much feeding that they will likely starve or your tank will become an algae farm.

I was just wondering could I do some saltwater sponges with a .019 gravity? (it's a dwarf seahorse tank and they are more lively with .019) Wattage?

 

[Fishguy2727]

They don't need light (at least not most of them, some actually do). The only filter feeder I have heard people keeping with seahorses is gorgonians (sea fans). The seahorses like to hold on to them and the gorgonians will eat the same size food as small seahorses. Again, it is risky to feed the gorgonian and not pollute the tank.

 

[Dylan5359]

I'm going to feed them Copepods, would the sea fan eat that too? Or would I have to find something else, like phytoplankton? So it would do alright in a .019 gravity?

 

[Fishguy2727]

It may, but most likely it will not do well long term at a lower salinity. The more you stretch the limitations the less they will thrive.

Gorgonians do not eat phytoplankton, few things do actually (clams, leather corals, and a couple others). My gorgonian loves cyclopeeze (which seahorses may eat too). You may want to see if they will eat golden pearls. It is a powder size pellet food that drifts in the water column. It is what many captive bred fish (fresh and salt) are being grown on instead of things like newly hatched brine shrimp. A single item diet (like just copepods) will not be as good as a high quality pellet long term.

 

[Dylan5359]

Guess I should forget it then. :/ do you know of any Coral/sponge that would thrive in a .019 salinity?

 

[Fishguy2727]

No, inverts simply don't tolerate those kinds of variations. This is why you won't see seahorses recommended for reef tanks, even in the fuge. The temp and salinity are just incompatible.

 

[Dylan5359]

Just curious because in that book, "dwarf seahorses in the aquarium", she mention a sentence about sponges and zoas. She must have raised her salinity to a .021 though.

 

[Fishguy2727]

Most reefs are kept at about 1.025. I could see sponges being tolerant of it, but not the fancy ones you would pay for. You would want ones that are live rock hitch hikers, they are much hardier. Zoanthids are also very hardy so I could see them making it, but they require more light. The less light the browner they will be.

 

[Dylan5359]

I checked out zoas, every site said 1.021-1.026 . :/