Sponges Gone Wild

[jrnannery]

What can i get that will consume these various sponges on my live rock? I assume that there is a fish that will do the job. I have tons of these ugly little suckers all over the place.

[justahobby]

As long as they are not smothering coral I would leave them. They help keep your water clean.

[Europhyllia]

sponges are awesome!

[Gseclipse02]

i think freshwater does the trick .... if not i bet kalk will lol

[Scream311]

As long as they are not smothering coral I would leave them. They help keep your water clean.

:thumbs_up:

[jroescher]

I was always told air would kill a sponge.

[Big_Pun]

no air doesnt kill them ive done re-scaping and left rock out for a hour or two, with no ill effect on sponge or coral. i like all my yellow, pink and purple sponge in my tank, aslong as its not the "black sponge of death" that stuff is horrible and covers and kills coral. the only thing ive seen that picks at sponge are some box fish i believe.

[jrnannery]

Thanks for the responses. If they were attractive, believe me, they would stay. And yes, I know about them filtering my water, which would be great in the sump, but some of them are competing for space with a galaxea, some zoas etc.

[justahobby]

Oxygen is supposed to kill them....by way of clogging their pores. Might try a 50/50 peroxide dip if it is just zoas you are trying to save.

[jrnannery]

Oxygen is supposed to kill them....by way of clogging their pores. Might try a 50/50 peroxide dip if it is just zoas you are trying to save.

Good thinking. I might just try that. And then I'll post results, both on the sponge elimination, and the effects of the peroxide dip on a Galaxy coral.

[jroescher]

I've also heard that some dying sponges can release some nasty stuff back in to the water. May want to quarantine the rocks you treat, or take some other extra measures.

[justahobby]

^^^ Hm, might want to try scraping off as much as possible first then. I have had the same experience with sponges surving when exposed to air so I am curious to hear if the peroxide will work. It would be good to know how the galaxy responds too. Try to get the galaxy to close up as much as possible. It would probably be best to do a small test patch first as well. Good luck!

[jroescher]

Pictures?? I'm curious as to what kinds of sponges you have.

[jrnannery]

I will try for pics first, then scrape, then dip...results to follow. Will do it tonight.