DE Publishing - The Captive Oceans Series
A series exploring the captive maintenance and
captive research of specific ocean lifeforms.
Learn about the incredible natural filtering capability of the living sponge !
DE Publishing announces volume 1 of the Captive Oceans Series.
A series exploring the captive maintenance and captive research of
specific ocean lifeforms. This series is written for intermediate to
advanced aquarist. Volume 1 is The Porifera (Living Sponges) -
Their Biology, Physiology and Natural Filtration Integration. Sponges
are extremely important members of the cryptofauna of tropical reefs
and inter-reef habitats. They provide a powerful natural filtration
capability that limits pelagic bacteria and dissolved organics levels in
tropical ocean environments. These powerful capabilities can be utilized
to naturally filter captive systems. The new Fifth Edition of this book
has more than doubled the amount of color images and we have also
added Sponge Species Data Sheets. These sheets give specific captive
care guidelines for common species. The table of contents for this first
volume of the series is included below along with select excerpts from
the book. There are 204 pages, 53,700 words, 31 figures and 8 tables.
In the latest Fifth Edition there is a color section with 48 color images
and 25 sponge species data sheets. The color cover has 6 photos.
With the second printing of this fifth edition DE Publishing has drastically
improved the quality of the book. All pages are now coated gloss paper.
The resolution of the color image pages has been drastically improved.
The book cover is now laminated which will not smear and will last for
many years. The binding has also been drastically improved. This book
now has a unique reinforced perfect binding that will last through many
years of rough handling. Paperback. Current Price is $29.00.
(California residents add 7.75 % Sales Tax)
"While sponges are the most primitive and simplest of the multicellular animals, they have achieved remarkable ecological success and possess an incredible nutrient gathering capability. Sponges are aquatic animals that occur in all oceans and have a wide distribution from tropical to temperate to arctic regions. There are also a few freshwater species that inhabit the ponds, lakes and streams in most areas of the world. They possess an incredible ability to morph and adapt to differing environmental conditions. This has allowed them to inhabit a wide variety of environmental niches from shallow coastal waters to very deep ocean zones. In some Caribbean locations sponges are more abundant than corals. They filter an incredible quantity of water from which they acquire oxygen and nutrients. The outer surface of a sponge is covered with inhalant pores where the ambient water is drawn into the sponge. These pores represent why sponges have been called the "Porifera" (Simpson 1983)(De Vos et. al 1991). Sponges have existed on the planet longer than any other animal and they may represent a natural method for controlling ambient bacterial and dissolved organic levels."
"The oldest animal skeletal fossil that has ever been found was a sponge spicule. These first sponges actually inhabited the earth 500 million years before the Tyrannosaurus dinosaurs evolved. About 600 million years ago, sponges branched away from the main evolutionary animal tree. They began to diversify into the thousands of sponge species that still exist today. There has been no higher order animal that has evolved from the basic sponge design. While sponges have existed on the planet, millions of new animal species have evolved on separate and distinct branches of the evolutionary tree. Most of these newly evolved animals became extinct as higher order species evolved and replaced them. During this time, the earth's environment has dynamically changed and experienced many catastrophes. These events included great plagues, ice ages, volcanic disturbances and even huge meteoric disturbances. Some of the more catastrophic events may have even blocked planetary sunlight for months and possibly years. The species that could not adapt to sudden changes in environmental conditions became extinct. It has been estimated that 97 % of all species that have ever evolved have become extinct. While these extinct species were failing to adapt, the oldest and first animal to evolve, the sponge, has remained basically unchanged. Its simple filtering system can be considered a functionally perfect design and an engineering masterpiece. While all the other higher order species on the planet have been adapting and evolving or not adapting and becoming extinct, the sponge has remained defiant and prolific. It has not adapted or evolved into a new higher order organism and has not become extinct. It is defying the order of continuing evolution, while surviving all the challenges that mother nature has presented it with. To date, it is perhaps the most fittest animal that has ever inhabited the planet (Gammill 1997). What gives the sponge this incredible ability to adapt to a changing environment without adapting to a higher order organism or becoming extinct ? The first 4 chapters of this book will explore the biology, morphology, physiology, nutrition and distribution of sponges in the natural environment."
"In some areas sponges have been found to play an extremely important role to the ecological habitat. For example, on Caribbean reefs it has been estimated that on the exterior slope between 25 and 40 m depth, sponges are so abundant and active that in 24 hours they filter the equivalent of the overlying water column (De Vos et. al. 1991). This means that the dissolved organics and bacterial populations of this ambient water are primarily consumed by the local sponge population. In the Bahamas, there are sponge dominated structures that have been referred to as "sponge reefs". These sponges act as sediment traps, sediment binders and also promote inorganic cementation processes. This has established a rigid and stable platform that other organisms such as gorgonians and about 10 species of corals have attached to. On Jamaican reefs, at depths from 70 to 105 meters, massive calcareous sponges once thought to be extinct have been found dominating reef surfaces (Tyree 1998)."
"The captive maintenance of sponges has historically been a difficult task to accomplish. Even scientist studying sponges in laboratory setups have had problems maintaining them in healthy conditions. Scientists have concluded that sponges are delicate and sensitive organisms (Reiswig 1981). Since the beginning of the reef keeping trend that promoted the captive maintenance of invertebrates, the captive reef market has imported limited numbers of live sponges. Prior to that time, sponges where incidental animals that saltwater enthusiasts would occasionally try to maintain. Some of these early sponges were probably sacrificed as food for marine angelfish. Unfortunately, the long term survivability of many of these sponges was initially very poor. These early systems were heavily artificially filtered and imported sponges were also not being properly collected or handled. This gave the sponge a label as being very difficult to keep. This reputation is similar to how aquarist viewed early attempts to maintain reef building stony corals in captivity. These corals are known for releasing copious amounts of coral slime into captive systems. Long term success with stony corals has been achieved by the utilization of advanced and technically orientated artificial filtration systems. While utilizing these systems we have learned that when properly maintained and handled, stony corals can thrive in captivity. Thousands of aquarist around the world are either experimenting with coral farming or actively farming these corals. It is hoped that this book can help the captive reef maintainer become very successful with maintaining, growing and farming live sponges in captivity. In fact, it can be very easy to have growing and thriving sponges that are doubling in size every few months. They can grow much faster than stony corals and can be farmed and utilized as integrated live filtration components."
"The integration of live sponges into a captive system can vary quite dramatically in scale. Some captive aquarist might just be attempting to keep a few sponges in isolated locations within their main display reef. Others might set up a small isolated area or external aquarium where conditions are beneficial for sponge propagation. The most extreme integration occurs when sponges are utilized as the primary filtration component for a captive reef system. This book will give the reader guidelines for keeping sponges alive and describe methods that can be utilized to setup sponge sumps or areas. An emphasis is placed on allowing sponges to consume the bacteria and dissolved organics that are produced by the typical organisms maintained within captive systems. Captive systems that have sterilized and heavily filtered environments should probably not integrate sponges into them. Sponges in those systems will require food in the form of bacteria, dissolved organics or plankton. Adding food to these systems to support the sponges undermines the natural potential that sponges have for filtering the water. It would be better to back off the non-natural filtration components as sponges are added. After reading this book the powerful natural filtration capabilities of sponges should become apparent. They are a natural method to control pelagic bacterial populations and dissolved organic concentrations. These capabilities should be utilized by the captive aquarist and artificial food should not be required to maintain sponges. The dissolved organics and bacterial levels of the typical captive system can be controlled by the addition of sponges. For aquarist that desire to maintain very large sponges in sterile systems (not recommended by the author) artificial foods that could be utilized include dissolved nutrients and live phytoplankton or frozen micro-plankton. Artificial food particles need to be smaller than 50 microns in diameter to be ingested by sponges. This book will also introduce the concept of establishing a completely natural based filtration system that is based on establishing a wider gradient of environmental parameters. A Captive maintainer employing such a system can utilize low light cryptic organisms as natural filtration consumers."
"This book was written for the hobbyist and professional aquarist that are interested in maintaining sponges within captive systems. Understanding the biology and physiology of sponges in their natural habitats can provide additional insight into the integration of sponges into the various captive systems that exist. The first two chapters of this book discuss the classification, biology, structure and morphology of sponges. This information is not required reading for those that want to learn how to setup a captive system to support sponges. These first two chapters do give a complete summary of the biology and structure of sponges and can serve as a reference for the average hobbyist. For scientist, biologist and naturalist this information can serve as an introduction to the natural history of sponges. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 discuss the physiology, distribution and interactions of sponges in their natural habitat. Although this information concerns the natural environment, it is important for captive maintainers to at least have a basic understanding of it. Chapter 3 discusses the natural diet and nutritional requirements of sponges, while chapter 4 describes the natural distribution and ecological factors that affect sponges. Chapter 5 covers the community interactions of sponges that includes: associations; symbionts; aggressiveness; toxic and non-toxic compounds; predation; and disease."
"Chapter 6, 7 and 8 contain information primarily concerned with maintaining sponges within captive systems. Chapter 6 covers propagation, acquisition and the handling of sponges as they are acclimated to captivity and as they are propagated in captivity. Chapter 7 analyzes how the captive aquarist can utilize the natural filtration capabilities of sponges to filter captive systems. The final chapter defines the important environmental parameters and techniques for establishing a captive sponge system. The information in chapters 7 and 8 is extremely important for aquarist maintaining sponges in captivity. Appendix A contains a complete listing of sponge classes, orders, families and genera. The classification scheme used is a recent one and the reader should assume that revisions and modifications will be occurring in the future. Appendix B contains a species listing for the common exposed (non-cryptic) sponges that occur in the Caribbean region. For accurate pictures of sponge species the reader should reference the following books: Tropical Pacific Invertebrates by Patrick Colin and Charles Arneson, Published by The Coral Reef Research Foundation; Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide by Gerald Allen and Roger Steene, Published by Tropical Reef Research; and Identification of Coral Reef Sponges Atlantic/Caribbean Edition by E.R. Gammill, published by Providence Marine Publishing Incorporated. For an introduction into the techniques utilized to identify species reference Shimek 1998 Some Truths about Sponges, published by Aquarium Frontiers Online. For an advanced species identification guide reference Hooper 1996 Guide to Sponge Collection and Identification, Queensland Museum an Internet Guide."
De Vos, L., K. Rutzler, N. Boury-Esnault, C. Donadey and J. Vacelet, (1991) Atlas of Sponge Morphology. Smithsonian Institution Press.
Gammill, E.R., (1997) Identification of Coral Reef Sponges. Atlantic/ Caribbean Edition. Providence Marine Publishing. Tampa, Florida.
Reiswig, H.M., (1981) Partial Carbon and Energy Budgets of the Bacteriosponge Verongia fistularis (Porifera: Demospongiae) in Barbados. Marine Ecology 2(4):273-293
Simpson, T.L., (1983) The Cell Biology of Sponges. Springer-Verlag 627 pp.
Tyree, S., (1998) Reef Building Stony Corals - The Natural Physical Environment. Volume 1. DE Publishing.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Sponge Classification and Biology
Introduction
Geological History
Modern History
The Three Modern Classes
Basic Sponge Biology
Outer Epithelium Cells
Inner Mesohyl Cells
Structure Secretion Cells
Pigmentation
Chapter 2 - Structure and Morphology
Introduction
Sponge Structure and Form
Silification
Calcification
Sponge Organic Materials
Skeletal Variations
Canal System
Burrowing Sponges
Chapter 3 - Feeding and Nutritional Requirements
Introduction
Bacteria
Phytoplankton or Unarmored Cells
Armored Cells
Detritus
Dissolved Organics
Modes of Filtration
Chapter 4 - Distribution and Ecological Factors
Introduction
Reef Habitats
Inshore Inter-Reef Habitats
Mangrove Communities
Twilight Zone
Ecological Factors
Reactions to Ecological Factors
Vertical Species Distribution
Cryptic Habitats
Chapter 5 - Associations, Chemical Warfare and Disease
Introduction
Associations
Photosynthetic Symbionts
Bacteriosponges
Aggressiveness
Toxic Compounds
Non-Toxic Compounds
Predation
Disease
Chapter 6 - Propagation, Acquisition and Handling
Introduction
Growth
Health
Propagation
Fragmentation
Acquiring Sponges
Captive Sponge Hunts
Handling Sponges
Acclimating Sponges to a Captive System
Chapter 7 - Utilizing Sponges as Natural Filters
Introduction
Modern History of Captive Filtration
A Natural Water Pump
Controlling Bacterial Populations Naturally
Consumption of Dissolved Organics
Particulate Filtration
Chapter 8 - Integrating Sponges into a Captive System
Introduction
Types of Captive Maintainers
Light and Current
Nutrition and Oxygen
Sponge Scrubbers
Reef Flats with Cryptic Habitats
An Introduction to the Environmental Gradient
Epilogue
Appendix A - Sponge Genera
Class Demospongiae (Siliceous Sponges)
Class Calcarea (Calcareous Sponges)
Class Hexactinellida (Glass Sponges)
Appendix B - Common Species Description
