Where can you buy these?

[SanguinesDream]

Originally Posted by Dearth

I thought J&L had a bunch of them in stock

I checked J & L and they don't have the ones that I am referring to.

[monocus]

are you looking for finger or vase sponges

[SanguinesDream]

Like these.

[neoh]

I'm not sure if sponges can properly be kept in captivity.

However; I saw a beautiful pipe organ at J&L on Sunday. I've been keeping one in my nano and it's a show stopper! The one they have is on a rock, top tank on the right of the coral price list, mid-tank, bottom rack - $40 I think.

I was going to buy it thinking it was something else.

[SanguinesDream]

Or these

[whatcaneyedo]

I don't think those are available anywhere. They're probably protected locally, or they're just too large/delicate for collection and shipping. Or perhaps they're accepted as being currently impossible to maintain in captivity due to feeding requirements. Who knows... I'd suggest learning how to culture your own phytoplankton first and mastering regular coral keeping before moving up to difficult Azooxanthellate species.

However if you'd like to try your hand at keeping a small variation I could send you a handful of this one of these days.

[kien]

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

I don't think those are available anywhere. They're probably protected locally, or they're just too large/delicate for collection and shipping. Or perhaps they're accepted as being currently impossible to maintain in captivity due to feeding requirements. Who knows... I'd suggest learning how to culture your own phytoplankton first and mastering regular coral keeping before moving up to difficult Azooxanthellate species.

I would completely agree with this. Even the more common sponges that you do tend to find at your LFS from time to time are ridiculously difficult to keep long term. Blue sponges, orange sponge balls, etc, you see those all the time at LFS. Sadly they don't tend to last long in captivity.

[PFoster]

+1

Basic coral husbandry must be 100% mastered first before you move on to keeping azoox corals.
If you cant keep sps well colored then dont try any azoox corals above and beyond suncorals, vendors, balanaphyllia etc (all the easy to keep corals they can be fed pellets or frozen)

[daniella3d]

The blue haliclona is photosyntectic and it is very easy to keep. Just stay away from chemiclean for cyano as it can kill sponges.

Originally Posted by kien

I would completely agree with this. Even the more common sponges that you do tend to find at your LFS from time to time are ridiculously difficult to keep long term. Blue sponges, orange sponge balls, etc, you see those all the time at LFS. Sadly they don't tend to last long in captivity.

[daniella3d]

This one is awesome, but it is a photosynthetic sponge and under good light it become dark, almost dark gray/black.

I have it and it just started to produce lots of pipes, very nice!

It can burn though, if you press hard enough on it, it can sting.

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

I don't think those are available anywhere. They're probably protected locally, or they're just too large/delicate for collection and shipping. Or perhaps they're accepted as being currently impossible to maintain in captivity due to feeding requirements. Who knows... I'd suggest learning how to culture your own phytoplankton first and mastering regular coral keeping before moving up to difficult Azooxanthellate species.

However if you'd like to try your hand at keeping a small variation I could send you a handful of this one of these days.