Freshwater sponges.

[mr. luke]

Anyone ever read anything about maintaining these?
I cant source tropical ones, but I can get cold-water sponges nice and easy.
I imagine them being incredibly hard to get right.
Reason I'm asking is because of the reliance c. spongicola has on sponges, and the possibility of a surrogate.

 

[Garuf]

Next to impossible by all accounts, they're filter feeding animals so you'd have to figure out their diet and supply it.
The Marine ones can't be taken out of water, and are very easy to kill with the tiniest temperature peak so using a coldwater one in the 28-30 degrees needed for sulawesi shrimp I'd imagine it to be a death sentence.

 

[mr. luke]

I imagine if they could be figured out then tropical ones would become avaliable?
There are already filter feeding inverts that can thrive in our aquariums, its just figuring out how we can do it.

Looked around and there are reports of some people having them apear in there tanks

 

[frothhelmet]

Here is an interesting account of the sponges that come in on the Sulawesi Tylomelania 'Sponge' sp.

http://www.crustaforum.com/board/showthread.php?t=1286

 

[Johno2090]

Take a look at that if your serious, im sure theres more articles about but i can't see why growing them in a lab and in an aquarium would be very different...its just working out how to not lose all the bacteria and food during filtration...

http://www.springerlink.com/content/v168x11856021807/

ok it requires you to log in but have a read of the preview and if you want to get a copy let me know..i know alot of students with access.