Andreia d'Almeida - Stove-pipe sponge
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Country: Portugal
Title: Stove-pipe sponge
Specie: Stove-pipe sponge – Aplysina archeri
Description: Its common name is due to the shape of its long tube-like structures with a cylindrical shape.
Like most sponges, they are filter feeders, eating plankton or suspended detritus in the water as it is pases them and is filtered in the tubes.
This species forms large tubes, up to 150 cm long, and can have different colors like lilac, pink, gray and brown. They take hundreds of years to grow and never stop until they die. They can grow single, or in large groups of up to 22 tubes, which normally are in contact with each other only at their base.
These sponges mostly live in the Western Atlantic Ocean and their natural predators can be snails, starfish and sea urchins.
Category: Scientific illustration
Technique: Digital in Affinity Designer
Size: 210x297mm
Year: 2021
