The Sponge's Diet

Sea sponges are necessary for maintaining the sea's ecosystem, and have a very specific diet in order to stay alive and healthy. The sea sponges also make the sea a cleaner place for the animals that live there.

  1. What is a Sea Sponge?

    • Sponges are actually loose cell collections, and do not have organs or tissues like most animals. The cells of the sponge are also totipotent, which means the cells will transform to serve any purpose that the sponge requires. Some sea sponges have a skeleton that is made of calcium carbonate, and some have no skeleton. The adaptive nature of the sponge makes for varied diet choices depending on the species.

    What Sponges Eat

    • Sponges have a filter feeding system and process large amounts of water through their cells. This allows them to eat very small food particles, many of which can only be seen with a microscope. Some sea sponges also eat the bacteria that are found in the water pumped through the sponge's cells. The water filtering through the sponge also serves to eliminate wastes and harmful materials.

    Digesting Food

    • Once the sea sponge finds food in the water that is filtered through it, specialized cells called choanocytes collect the food. Amoeba-like cells are employed to transfer the food throughout the sponge's body in order to feed all the remaining cells. This process takes place each time the sponge eats, which can occur several times a day depending on the current for the body of water where the sponge lives.

    Young Sponges

    • Sponges are asexual, which means they possess the ability to reproduce by themselves. Some sponges can also act as hermaphrodites, or can act as either the male or female in the reproduction process. When a young sponge is formed, it will thrive on the same foods as its parents; newly formed sponges often feed on plankton as well as other small living organisms in the water. If the baby sponge is a result of asexual cloning, it will have the identical diet of the parent sponge.

    Sponge Predators

    • Since sponges often eat bacteria and contain a considerable amount of toxins due to their diet, not many animals eat sponges. Nudibranchs, which are soft-bodied slugs that live in the sea, are some of the only animals who are not negatively affected by eating sea sponges; some of the bacteria that are naturally found in sponges can contribute significantly to the slug's immune defenses.