Saltcorner
By Bob Goemans
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Two Little Fishies 

Family Aplysinidae

Aplysina aerophoba

(Nardo, 1833)

Golden Tube Sponge

Not Reef Tank Suitable

Not Suitable for Fish-Only Tank

Range: Northern Atlantic Ocean: Mediterranean, Bay of Biscay.

Natural Environment: Inhabits reef slopes and encrusts hard substrates near seagrass areas.

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

Best left in the wild.

Taxonomy:

    Kingdom: Animalia

    Phylum: Porifera

    Class: Demospongiae

    Subclass: Verongimorpha

    Order: Verongida

    Family: Aplysinidae

    Genus: Aplysina

FYI: Shown here for identification purpose only.

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!

 Aplysina aerophoba (Golden Tube Sponge)
Photo © Daniel Geiger
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Two Little Fishies