There are many factors such as light, salinity, pH, dissolved oxygen and the accumulation of waste products that influence the growth rate of sponges.
The benefits of sea sponge aquaculture are realised as a result of its ease of establishment, minimum infrastructure requirements and the potential to be used as a source of income for populations living in developing countries.
Techniques such as the rope and mesh bag method are used to culture sponges independently or within an integrated multi-trophic aquaculture system setting.
[5] In these countries, sponge aquaculture is both an easy and profitable business, which benefits the local community and environment through minimising both harvesting pressure on wild stocks and environmental damage.
[7] The presence of secondary metabolites produced by symbiotic microorganisms within the sponge, enhances its growth and survival.
Symbiotic bacteria that normally inhabit sea sponges start reproducing at an unsustainable rate when ambient temperature of the water increases by a few degrees.
The underlying factors that result in disease outbreaks may be due to causative agents such as viruses, fungi, cyanobacteria and bacterial strains.
During the initial establishment of a farm, sponge explants will be chosen by their phenotypic characteristics of fast growth and high quality spongin or metabolites.
[19] Large discharge volumes of organic matter from uneaten feed and excretory waste from aquacultured species has resulted in high levels of nutrients within coastal waters.
Large quantities of nitrogen (~ 75%) excreted from bivalves, salmon and shrimp, enter into the coastal environment, with the potential to develop algal blooms, and reduce dissolved oxygen in the water.
An integrated aquaculture system consists of a number of species at different trophic levels of the food chain.
[19] The sponge Hymeniacidon perlevis has exhibited an excellent ability to remove total organic carbon (TOC) from seawater under integrated aquaculture conditions,[19] and could be a potentially useful bioremediation tool for aquaculture systems in regions where water pollution is high.
Thin mesh strands with large gaps and a well-positioned site may act as a means to mitigate against biofouling and reduced flow rates.
[7] By combining both rope and mesh bag approaches to bath sponge aquaculture in a "nursery period", increases may occur in quality and production.
In the nursery period method, sponges are initially cultivated in mesh bags until the explants have healed and regenerated to efficiently filter water.
This strategy is labour-intensive and costly, with growth rates and survival found to be no greater than when farming occurs solely via the mesh bag method.
[22] Aquaculture production of C. matthewsi sponges was undertaken by the Marine and Environmental Research Institute of Pohnpei (MERIP), to try and generate a sustainable income for local community residents with few options to earn money.
The sponges take approximately two years to reach harvestable size, with free divers routinely removing seaweed and biofouling agents by hand.
[5] Research into farming sea sponges for bioactive metabolites occurs in the Mediterranean, Indo-Pacific, and South Pacific regions.
In the aquaculture for bioactives, the final explant shape is not of concern, allowing for additional production methods to be utilized.
Localised differences in light intensity and bio-fouling are physical and biological factors that have been found to significantly affect metabolite biosynthesis in sponges.