Oceanapia sagittaria, A Ball Sponge


Awesome, I found this cute object while snorkeling in several small islands at Kepulauan Seribu, Jakata. I wonder what exactly this object because of its unique and striking colors among the seagrass and macroalgae bad in sand substrate. I'm trying to figure out its classification in several books and website, it includes sponge genera that symbiotic and grow in seagrass or corals ecosystem. Sometimes grow on coral rubble.

 Oceanapia sagittaria grow in seagrass and macroalgae bed 

Together with other sponge species

Oceanapia sagittaria, a beautiful sponge species with a distinct, a deep maroon to bright pink color, translucent structure on the top of their stalk (5-10 cm in height). The main body is buried in soft sediment. Small delicate prickly ball about 1-2 cm in diameter, on a short conical stem (called the capitate structure). The ball has fine sheets between the prickles. The capitate structure is where the water is 'exhaled' from the sponge, and also where propagules (new sponges) are dispersed (www.wildsingapore.com).
Several researches explained that this sponge contains metabolite dercitamide and a new pyridoacridine alkaloid sagitol (Salomon and Faulkner 1996). One of application is kuanoniamines A and C isolation for anticancer activities from this sponge (Kijjoa et al. 2007).


References
  1. http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/porofera/oceanapia.htm 
  2. Salomon CE and Faulkner DJ. 1996. Sagitol, a pyridoacridine alkaloid from the sponge Oceanapia sagittaria. Tetrahedron Letters. 37(51):9147-9148. 
  3. Kijjoa A, Wattanadilok R, Campos N, Nascimento NS, Pinto M, Herz W. 2007. Anticancer activity evaluation of kuanoniamines A and C isolated from the marine sponge Oceanapia sagittaria, collected from the Gulf of Thailand. Marine Drugs. 17:5(2):6-22.

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