Cali Kid Corals

Sponges

Erick

Erick

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I have a lot of sponges growing on my rocks and I am curious if these will effect my future coral stocking. I don't know what type of sponges they are, but I have light green, clear/white, brown, and small orange ones.

Are they aggressive? cause they seem like they will become a bit invasive cause they are growing well in my tank.
 
they can grow between polyps and choke them but i wouldn't worry because they do a lot of good in filtering your water.

if they are starting to crowd around a lot, feel free to tear some off. whatever you do, don't expose it to air as it will decompose and foul up your system
 
I dig Sponges....
I have light blue, purple, yellow, and red encrusting sponges.

Also like to keep "Blue Sponge" and the new orange and yellow "CUP" sponges coming out of Africa at the moment

there not very big, about the diameter of a espresso cup

Im actually going to be attempting to propagate the "cup" ones soon!!
 
Watch out handling sponges/breaking them as some people are very allergic to it. I know some one that gets a reaction from just putting his hand in a tank where a sponge had been handled.

Some sponges are a parasite. They bore into coral and end up killing it.
 
Mine are all encrusting types, and if they are parasites to coral, they have been living without corals for a long time. As for allergic reactions, I have put my hands in the tank often with no adverse effects and I touched the sponge to make sure it was spongy once.
 
They don't "need" corals to live.

With as many sponges as there are I highly doubt you've even scratched the surface with exposure ;) It was a general warning to every, not just you ;) they can be toxic to corals and humans alike. Just be careful is all I am saying.
 
Thanks for the warning, this was the reason I was asking, because I heard they can be bad for corals, I was just curious if the ones I had were going to be a problem in the future, I don't mind them, they add some color in my very purple tank :)

Right now the largest sponge is creeping towards an Acro Validae I got from Reefdan (which is coloring up and looks really cool now btw) so that is what has spurred me on to asking :)
 
I've had to use duct tape, rubber cement, even super glue to remove whatever the spines are in some sponges, a super ugly scene.

That said, unless the sponge is doing damage to corals I consider them beneficial.
 
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