Australian White Lightning Sponge

[FarmerTy]

So, I picked up a little frag of this beauty from Laura just to try it out and see it's success rate. I figured start on the little frag and if it thrives, I'll move on to a larger colony.

So, I know some ARC'ers ordered this from Vivid Aquariums a few Group Buys back and was wondering how your colonies have been doing. In particular, location you placed the frag, flow, lighting, feeding regiment and any other parameters that are relevant.

So far I have mine on the far right side of my tank, in a medium-high flow area that gets intermittent flow reductions with the wavemaker alternating pumps. Basically a good long 10sec burst followed by 10secs of slower current. I feed mine DT's, oyster eggs, and Reef roids for the sponge portion and for the polyps I try cyclopeeze and they take them up. It is in a more shaded area of the tank though it still does get indirect light from a 250-watt metal halide (but not much at all) and my actinic VHOs.

Let me know if you got them and what you're doing with them to be successful. I figure as a group we can learn to not only keep these alive but also to have them flourish in our captive reefs. Thanks for the input!

-Ty

[+dapettit]

Ty,

I didn't get mine for a vivid order but I have had one for several months. We originally place it in our 58 softie tank under compact pc's. The flow was medium to high. I never saw any polyp extension like it displayed at the LFS, however we continued to feed it DT's every other day.

We are setting up a tank for seahorses and moved the WL into that tank. It has one Koralia nano and a hang on filter for flow (very low). It is also under very low lighting (24 led lights that came with the tank). This made all the difference in the world. It is happy and polyps are extending. I believe they prefer low light and flow, but it was under halides with polyps extended when we purchased it.

I hope this was helpful,

Dave-

[mFrame]

Might was always happiest in very low light, medium flow. You'll want to make sure that you feed phyto. In my case the sponge died out from under the polyps. Once it was gone the polyps didn't stand a chance.

[FarmerTy]

Thanks guys. I actually have a ton of native sponges on the backs of all of my live rock, one of them is massive, bigger than a softball if you rolled it up into a ball. That's why i think it might have a pretty good chance of surviving. The polyps are extended and look happy. I may try just putting it in the shade if things turn south but so far it is looking good. Worst comes to worst, it's only a small 1" frag so if it goes, then I know it was the impossible feat. Thanks for the input guys!

-Ty

[mFrame]

Mine made it and did well for about 3 months, it was only once i started having cyano issues and changed the way i was feeding and doing extended periods of dark that it became unhappy. I would by no means expect that you wouldn't be able to keep it alive.

I would warn however, that in a seahorse tank they horses will hang onto it, which will annoy it to no end. This can create bare spots on the sponge and allow algae growth which will eventually kill it. Mama ended up moving hers to a different tank specifically for that reason.

[Laura]

I would warn however, that in a seahorse tank they horses will hang onto it, which will annoy it to no end. This can create bare spots on the sponge and allow algae growth which will eventually kill it. Mama ended up moving hers to a different tank specifically for that reason.

[Laura]

Yes she did!! Though it was very happy in the seahorse tank with almost daily polyp extensions, I noticed that the seahorse prehensile tails were wearing the sponge away in spots. It then caused algae to build up even more than usual, so I moved it about a week or so ago. I do place it mid-high in the 60g, as that was where the best "nook" was!! It is doing well, extends it's polyps, but I must say, I have it under a higher flow than the seahorse tank. Time will tell if the flow is too intense, but so far, so good. It does like frozen rotifers...seems to be the perfect size for the white zoas. Phyto is perfect for the sponge...I use DT's or Marine Snow.

Also, in the seahorse tank, being I have very low flow, I had to sometimes "gently" rub algae off the sponge as it accumulated.

[+Hydro]

My spider sponge is dying after about 4 months. The zoanthids are happy and open at least every other day, I feed them whenever I notice them open. It is actually the sponge that is dying, slowly fading away. I have several other sponges that are doing fine but for some reason not this one. Medium flow, medium lighting...can your tank water be to clean for a sponge? I did read somewhere that dt's isn't good for sponges, I think that it was wetwebmedia.com.

[mFrame]

My spider sponge is dying after about 4 months. The zoanthids are happy and open at least every other day, I feed them whenever I notice them open. It is actually the sponge that is dying, slowly fading away. I have several other sponges that are doing fine but for some reason not this one. Medium flow, medium lighting...can your tank water be to clean for a sponge? I did read somewhere that dt's isn't good for sponges, I think that it was wetwebmedia.com.

Exactly what happened to mine. I did notice that I did fine until I stopped my regular dosing of reef roids and started just using phyto. That could have been it.

The zoas lasted long after the sponge. I even transplanted them onto some other sponge on my LR, they made it about 2 months after that. You might try the reef roids.

[+Hydro]

I will try reefroids, I actually have some. I hate to see it go....it is one of our favorite things in the tank. Yesterday it broke in half with only the zoanthids holding it together. I wish that I knew exactly what the problem was, I would fix it. I think that it may be to late.

I wonder if feeding the zoanthids to much causes them to grow over the sponge to the point where it starves the sponge??? Like I said before my zoanthids are very happy, it is the sponge that is in trouble. There isn't much sponge left showing on mine.

[FarmerTy]

Hydro,

You hit my theory on the nose with that one. I was thinking that if the polyps are too prolific, they will in essence smother out the sponge that it grows on. I am aiming to not actively feed the polyps and to direct my focus on the sponge with the reef roids and oyster eggs.

Mike, I was thinking that as a backup. To transfer the polyps to the many different varieties of sponges naturally occurring in my tank and see if they will form the same relationship as with the red sponge. What did you do to transplant it? super glue underwater? what type of sponge did you try? I have the dull yellow/brown variety, some blueish/gray variety, and some birght greenish variety as well.

I'll let you guys know how it goes. Thanks for the input as always.

[mFrame]

Well, my polyps did greatly outnumber the sponge in volume and were always open. It's just so hard to tell when that red/orange sponge is growing.

I have a whitish/gray stringy sponge that grows like made in my tank. I put the polyps on it but the never attached. You could try gluing it, but everything i read about sponges (and white lightning in particular) says to never expose it to air. that makes gluing very difficult.

If I had it to do again, I would contact Mama about some of those gorgeous red and orange sponges she had for sale previously. I think if you can find a nice healthy large one, especially one with lots of branches/nooks/crannies, that you could drape the polyps over and around it like christmas lights. I think after a bit of time the polyps will attach just like any other zoo's do. This would do a few things: 1)give you a nice large healthy base sponge 2) provide the color contrast that makes the white lightning so attractive in the first place, 3) give me hope on being able to try it again. It was one of my favorite pieces.

[FarmerTy]

I'll get my thinking cap on and maybe dig deep on my science background to maybe find a solution to keeping this guy alive and healthy. I don't really know how environmental science will help me but I may get lucky. Thanks for the input Mike.

-Ty

[Laura]

OK...this is getting interesting...

Mike...you saw the other day where I placed my sponge...though the circulation is awesome, I think it is getting too much light being so high up???? Your thoughts? My main reason for concern is that when I got in those red sponges a while back, I read up on them and saw that they specifically like to be low and basically as dark as possible. I was told to really keep them clean of all debris and algae and spot-fed with DT's...I noticed that everyday the blue legg hermits are on the sponge area, really giving it a good cleaning as it did start to get hair algae in the seahorse tank. That is why I had to manually clean it myself...I didn't want to keep the lil' blue leggs in with the ponies as they would annoy them.

All input is appreciated!!

[+Hydro]

I have some of the zoanthids if someone wants to experiment with them.