Cliona carteri

(Ridley 1881)

Orange-Red Boring Sponge

Range: Northern Atlantic Ocean: Mediterranean.

Natural Environment: Inhabits local rocky coastal areas and encrusts sides of rocky substrate, clam and snail shells.

Aquarium Suitability: Not collected for the home tropical aquarium trade.

Best left in the wild.

Note: For a photo of this sponge, visit the Baensch Marine Atlas Vol. 2, page 40.

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Porifera

Class: Demospongiae

Subclass: Heteroscleromorpha

Order: Clionaida

Family: Clionidae

Genus: Cliona

FYI: Has a temperature range of 50 - 68ºF (10 - 20ºC).

Sponges posses no nervous, digestive or excretory systems, and feed by filtering suspended bacteria and fine detritus. Strong water movement is vital to almost all, not only for carrying food to these sessile creatures but also to carry waste/unused matter away. In fact, a sponge the size of a baseball can filter about fifty gallons of water per hour!