Sycon sponge
Sycon raphanus
37.6884, -0.741835
Field Notes
Description:
It is a sponge that always lives alone. It has a height of 1-1.5 centimeters, it is very small. It has a scratchy and rough surface, due to the high number of small spines that come out of the body. Its color is between white or light gray. It has the osculum (hole in the middle of the body) surrounded by a crown of spicules (like spines that form the skeleton of the sponge).
It is not very abundant, we usually find it between 1 and 10 meters deep, on buoy ropes and under stones.
Habitat:
On Caulerpa leaves proliferates in the shallow waters of the coastal salt lagoon of the Mar Menor (Murcia)
Notes:
The sponge is dedicated to filtering sea water. It sucks in water through the tiny holes it has all over its body, takes in all the food particles it can find, and expels the water it has already filtered through the osculum, which is a larger hole in the middle of its body.
How does it reproduce?
Sponges are hermaphrodites, that is, they have both sexes. They release the sperm into the water and these swim to another sponge and fertilize it. They must produce many for some to reach another sponge.
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