Good morning from Curacao…

Here you see a fallen section of a Stove-Pipe sponge (Aplysina archeri) in purple, with new growth climbing up a Row Pore Rope sponge. The rope sponge acts like a sort of trellis, and supports the weight of the new stove-pipe by allowing it to not only cover it in sections, but to actually fuse with the rope sponge – that’s just way cool!! I’m guessing that once the stove-pipe grows large enough to get a good hold on the reef, it will be completely fused with the rope sponge, the two will become one cool looking sponge. It’s hard to see in the photo, but these sponges are home to little gobies, crabs, shrimps, and brittle stars, in fact the harder you look the more things you will see. MORE