Astrosclera willeyana

Lister, 1900

Encrusting Orange Sponge

Range: Indo-West Pacific Ocean

Natural Environment: Inhabits hard substrates on reef flats where current is quite swift.

Aquarium Suitability: Not collected for the home aquarium trade.

Best left in the wild.

Taxonomy:

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Porifera

Class: Demospongiae

Subclass: Heteroscleromorpha

Order: Agelasida

Family: Astroscleridae

Genus: Astrosclera

FYI: Feeds by drawing water in and through its pores and filtering out bacteria and organic particles, then expelling the filtered water out through the osculi.

Shown here for identification only.