In other locations it grows as several concentric mounds with smaller cloacal openings or as large vase-type structures, single or in groups, sometimes fused together laterally.

The consistency of this sponge is compressible, fragile and crumbly, but handling it is unwise as it causes a smarting sensation and numbness of the skin.

Its range extends from Florida and the Bahamas to the Greater and Lesser Antilles and south to Panama, Colombia and Venezuela.

[3] Parasitic polychaete worms, Haplosyllis spongicola, are frequently seen as small white shapes protruding from the inner cloaca walls.

There may be tens of thousands of worms living in an individual sponge and they are sometimes so abundant that they make up five percent of its weight.