ID growth on frogspawn

[daudelus]

I snapped a photo of the white growths on my frogspawn coral... I believe they are a couple sponges, but I thought I could get some confirmation. It doesn't appear to be harming the extension of polyps (this was taken just as the lights came on and polyps had not had a chance to extend).

http://i583.photobucket.com/albums/ss277/daudelus/Frogspawn.jpg

[xJake]

They are sponges. I have them growing on most of my Euphyllia corals.

[Anemonebuff]

I believe that they are calcareous sponges. I have them as well, but not in direct sunlight like yours.

[daudelus]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15015238#post15015238 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xJake
They are sponges. I have them growing on most of my Euphyllia corals.

Are they specific to Euphylia species of coral?
How large will they get?

[daudelus]

Actually, as an aside, the sponge on the right has covered a portion of skeleton that was not producing polyps at the time I got the coral, so it hides the dead... so it's nice in that regard!

[daudelus]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15015247#post15015247 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Anemonebuff
I believe that they are calcareous sponges. I have them as well, but not in direct sunlight like yours.

Thanks Anemonebuff! A google of Calcareous sponges led to a find of "Clathrina Coriacea" which is a White Network Sponge. I love how that works :-D

[greenbean36191]

Your sponge isn't C. coriacea, which is a coldwater sponge. I wouldn't even assume that your sponge is calcareous. In fact, from just a picture there's really not much that can be said about a sponge as far as IDs go. In most cases you can tell which of the 3 main classes it belongs to, but anything beyond that takes microscopic examination and usually an expert.

Yours is a white demosponge, but that's about as specific as you can really hope to get.

[daudelus]

Thanks for the info greenbean... any way of knowing how large they can get?

[xJake]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15015310#post15015310 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by daudelus
Are they specific to Euphylia species of coral?
How large will they get?

They definitely aren't Euphyllia specific, as I've also seen them on Caulastrea spp. as well as several other types of corals.

As for how large they get, I can't really say. The type I have seen typically forms a colony on the uninhabited parts of the skeleton which looks like a single asymmetrical blob.