Clathrina coriacea

(Montagu, 1814)

White Calcareous Lattice Sponge

Range: Northern Atlantic Ocean: Mediterranean.

Natural Environment: Inhabits caves and/or found on reef flats.

Aquarium Suitability: Not collected for the home tropical aquarium trade.

Best left in the wild.

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Porifera

Class: Calcarea

Subclass: Calcinea

Order: Clathrinida

Family: Clathrinidae

Genus: Clathrina

FYI: Shown here for identification only.

Has a temperature range of 50 - 68ºF (10 - 20ºC).

Sponges posses no nervous, digestive or excretory systems, and feed by filtering suspended bacteria and fine detritus. Strong water movement is vital to almost all, not only for carrying food to these sessile creatures but also to carry waste/unused matter away. In fact, a sponge the size of a baseball can filter about fifty gallons of water per hour!

These are sponges having skeletons composed of three or four rayed calcareous spicules, which consist of calcium carbonate in the form of calcite.