/The Best Livestock For Your Reef Aquarium:

Sponges, Phylum Porifera, Part 2

To: Sponges Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10,

By Bob Fenner

Principal marine organisms

Aplysina cauliformis, the Row Pore Rope Sponge. Long rows of excurrent siphons. Occur in tints of purple, reds. Antigua photo at right.

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Aplysina fistularis, the Yellow Tube Sponge. Yellow to orange encrusting forms to fingers and tubes that bear antler-like growths in shallows, and grow longer w/o these "antlers" in increasing depths. Don't touch! Purple color stains hands for days. Right: shallow colony in Bahamas and deeper one in Belize . Below: large colony in Bonaire.

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Verticals (Full/Cover Page Sizes Available) Linked

Aplysina fulva, rope sponge; occur in varying shapes/growths and colors, depending on depth and growing circumstances. Here in Cozumel 2014.

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Genus Atergia:

Atergia sp. Distinct species with octopus-sucker like papillations. Occur in red to white color on dead coral, protected regions. Western Pacific. N. Sulawesi image.

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Axinyssa aculeata Wilson 1925. Yellow Axinyssa Sponge.

Genus Callyspongia:

Callyspongia species. Blue Callyspongia. A species of Hawaiian sponge found living exposed on the open reef (as opposed to cryptically hidden as most sponges). Hawai'i'.

Callyspongia plicifera. Azure Vase Sponge. 6-18 inches. Tropical West Atlantic. Mostly light purple in colour, but some deeper water ones, supposedly dying, appear a beautiful gold. Bahamas pic.

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Callyspongia vaginalis. Branching Vase Sponge. Gray in color; thin walled. Spiky on the outside; smooth on the inside. Roatan 2019. Pic by LauraH.

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To: Sponges Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10,

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