Getting rid of sponges

[lotr clown]

I've got a pretty large colony of micromussa that has gotten some sponge growth between some of the polyps. What would be the best way to get rid of the sponges without harming the micro polyps? Is it true that sponges exposed to air will die? If so, I could just take the colony out of the water for 5min. and see if that works. What do you think?

 

[malofish]

that would work, but i dont think that it would take that long. mabe just a minute or two should be enough.

 

[v320]

@lotr clown wrote:

Not all sponges that are exposed to air die! Some of them excrete a mucous that protects them for some extended amount of time.

Is there any way you can just use tweezers and/or a blade and scrape them off?!

 

[Darby]

The reason most sponges die when exposed to air is air bubbles get trapped in the open areas within, in effect starving and suffocating them over a short time. Like anything that dies off, sponges can dump some pollutants into your system, some if it rather nasty.

Not sure about their removal though. Scrapping might be the best way.

 

[DaveJ]

Manual removal is best. Acans and Micros that are coming in often have sponge in or around them and if the sponge ends up dying off it can impact the coral as it dies off. I would carefully scrape it off.

 

[lotr clown]

Well I scraped off what I could with a pair of plastic tweezers and there was a lot more in there than I thought. There was even growth beneath the rock. It was a yellow sponge. I took it out of the water to do it, so hopefully I scraped enough out and the exposure to air helps to kill off the residue I couldn't get off.
Thanks for the replies