Description
Also known as Burrowing Sponge, Maiden's Fan, Marine Sponge, Pink Puffball Sponge, Red Burrowing Sponge, Red Maiden Fan Sponge.
Found singly, or in small colonies, with the stalk buried in the substrate, over sand and rocky areas of reefs. The cap (about the size of a golf ball) above is used for filtering food. This ball can also fall off, roll around the seabed, re-attach or reform, into another sponge!
They feed on plankton.
Length - 2cm
Depth - 0-70m
Widespread Western Central Pacific
Sponges come in a range of sizes from minuscule encrusting species under rocks to massive sponges which can be up to one and half metres high.
They are able to filter many litres of sea water every few seconds.
Sponges can exude highly toxic chemicals and so have very few predators apart from nudibranchs, sea stars, sea urchins and umbrella shell.
Their colour can vary if growing in the light or when growing in the shade. Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanapia
2 comments
This is a sponge not a fish.
I visited a website which purports to trnslate a puffball fish to Russian and I am no wiser after than before I suspect it alludes to a puffball skirt