I know that we all have a favorite. I was poking around to kill some time at work and thought
about it for a minute and realized my favorite reef creature is the sponge. To me there is no
more amazing reef 'animal' than the sponge. What they do and how they do it is amazing to
me, as are the colors and shapes. How they build themselves is amazing, too. It can even
be annoying. If you have ever had sponge disintegrate in your hands when messing around with
curing live rock, it can be nasty, but you quickly find out that they are a bit more than sponge
in there. There is a building block known as a spicule, that I imagine is created in much the same
way as coral structure, through calcium deposition. Except the spicule is developed with an
organic filament, to which the cell forming the spicule adds silica. They are often microscopic,
and if you ever get one caught in between your fingers, you will swear you have a steel sliver in
your skin...ouch. Take a look at these spicules, which look like some medieval torture tool kit.
about it for a minute and realized my favorite reef creature is the sponge. To me there is no
more amazing reef 'animal' than the sponge. What they do and how they do it is amazing to
me, as are the colors and shapes. How they build themselves is amazing, too. It can even
be annoying. If you have ever had sponge disintegrate in your hands when messing around with
curing live rock, it can be nasty, but you quickly find out that they are a bit more than sponge
in there. There is a building block known as a spicule, that I imagine is created in much the same
way as coral structure, through calcium deposition. Except the spicule is developed with an
organic filament, to which the cell forming the spicule adds silica. They are often microscopic,
and if you ever get one caught in between your fingers, you will swear you have a steel sliver in
your skin...ouch. Take a look at these spicules, which look like some medieval torture tool kit.
