This sponge has a range of distinctive colours from cream in low light areas through yellow/brown to red/purple. It can encrust over objects or for small lums and mounds. It can look quite shaggy and is soft to the touch.

Low tide to subtidal to about 5m. Common under boulders and larger stones.

A filter feeder, feeding on particles and plankton in the water.

This sponge takes sperm in through the inhalent pores where they fertilize the eggs, eventually releasing a planktonic larva. Like other sponges it is capable of asexual reproduction by budding.

Photo Credit: Rod Morris. Photos can be purchased from https://www.rodmorris.co.nz/