Cliona delitrix

Pang, 1973

Red Boring Sponge

Range: Western Atlantic Ocean: Florida, Caribbean, and the Bahamas.

Natural Environment: Inhabits reef and lagoon areas, usually on or around stony coral projections.

Aquarium Suitability: Not collected for the home aquarium trade.

Best left in the wild.

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Porifera

Class: Demospongiae

Subclass: Heteroscleromorpha

Order: Clionaida

Family: Clionidae

Genus: Cliona

FYI: Shown here for identification purpose only.

If attached to stony coral, it will dissolve its calcium carbonate skeleton material.

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!