---
title: "Giant Barrel Sponge (Xestospongia muta) | AnimalTracks.wiki"
description: "The \"redwood of the reef\": a pump-feeding barrel that may top a meter, and studies suggest it may live for thousands of years."
image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/giant-barrel-sponge-1.webp"
published: "2026-10-11"
updated: "2026-10-11"
---
# Giant Barrel Sponge (*Xestospongia muta*)
> **Status**: Checked against 6 sources, listed under Sources below.
> **Tagline**: The "redwood of the reef": a pump-feeding barrel that may top a meter, and studies suggest it may live for thousands of years.
> **Soundtrack Vibe**: Sludge Metal & Heavy Drone // Sunn O))), "Alice"
> **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/7n6WNQidHGzHm0TQHWV7aH)
> **Vibe Match**: A giant barrel sponge stays in one spot and may filter up to 50,000 times its own volume of water every day. Sunn O))) build Alice from long, sustained notes with almost no beat, the sound of something huge pumping slowly in place.
## Biological Superpowers & Stats
- **Taxonomy**: *Xestospongia muta*
- **Danger Level**: Low
- **Conservation Status**: Not Evaluated ([IUCN Red List](https://www.iucnredlist.org/))
- **Superpower**: Can filter up to 50,000 times its own volume of seawater every day
- **Habitat**: Tropical Atlantic coral reefs, from Florida and the Caribbean to Central America and Venezuela
- **Diet**: Bacteria-sized food particles filtered from seawater
- **Tags**: invertebrate, coral-reef, filter-feeder, ocean
## Natural History & Behavior
## The redwood of the reef
Some people call the giant barrel sponge the "redwood of the reef", and the nickname fits. It may grow over 1 meter (about 3 feet) tall, with a mass that exceeds most other benthic invertebrates. That is science-speak for animals without backbones that live on the sea floor. In one nitrogen study, the masses calculated for the sponges ran from 7.4 to 68.2 kilograms (about 16 to 150 pounds).
Redwoods live a long time, and so does this sponge. Its age is estimated with growth models, and studies of Caribbean giant barrel sponges suggest they may be thousands of years old. Those estimates carry error, which is expected to grow with the size of the sponge.
## A living pump
A sponge is an animal with no nervous system, and a giant barrel sponge stays in one spot. It feeds by pumping seawater through its body. Water enters through tiny pores and passes through chambers lined with cells called choanocytes, which have whip-like tails that help drive the water and filter out food. Then it leaves through a hole at the top called the osculum. One sponge may filter up to 50,000 times its own volume of water every day, catching food particles about the size of bacteria.
Its color, anywhere from salmon pink to purple, comes from cyanobacteria that live inside it as symbionts, meaning partners.
## Armor for an animal that cannot run
Stuck in one spot, the sponge protects itself from fish mainly with chemical defenses. In the Florida Keys it is also defended with spicules, microscopic glass-like rods.
> **Bleached and bitten**
> Across 10 hours of video, parrotfish took 45 bites from normally colored giant barrel sponges and 527 bites from four bleached ones.
## Timed by the moon
Giant barrel sponges spawn together: neighbors release eggs and sperm in one synchronized event. In one study, spawning came on the ninth night after a full moon. In one event that was observed, eggs and sperm were released for about an hour. The sponges live on tropical Atlantic reefs, with the highest concentrations off Florida, Central America and the Caribbean. On Conch Reef off Key Largo, Florida, densities in 2006 ranged from 0.134 to 0.277 sponges per square meter, and a 2011 study called it the dominant habitat-forming organism on many Caribbean coral reefs. The IUCN Red List has not evaluated it.
## Frequently Asked Questions
### How deep does the giant barrel sponge live?
Animal Diversity Web gives a depth range of 10 to 30 meters (about 33 to 98 feet), on tropical coral reefs. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())*
### What eats a giant barrel sponge?
Its known predators are fishes, turtles, nudibranchs (sea slugs) and echinoids, a group that includes sea urchins. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())*
### Does bleaching kill a giant barrel sponge?
Not in a six-year survey on Conch Reef off Key Largo, Florida: the researchers found that bleaching did not result in sponge mortality. *(Source: [McMurray et al. 2011]())*
## Sources
1. [Xestospongia muta (giant barrel sponge). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.]()
2. [Fiore, Baker & Lesser (2013). Nitrogen Biogeochemistry in the Caribbean Sponge, Xestospongia muta: A Source or Sink of Dissolved Inorganic Nitrogen? PLoS ONE.]()
3. [Dunlap & Pawlik (1998). Spongivory by Parrotfish in Florida Mangrove and Reef Habitats. Marine Ecology.]()
4. [McMurray, Henkel & Pawlik (2010). Demographics of increasing populations of the giant barrel sponge Xestospongia muta in the Florida Keys. Ecology.]()
5. [McMurray et al. (2011). Bleaching of the giant barrel sponge Xestospongia muta in the Florida Keys. Limnology and Oceanography.]()
6. [McGrath et al. (2018). Growth and longevity in giant barrel sponges: Redwoods of the reef or Pines in the Indo-Pacific? Scientific Reports.]()
*Published October 11, 2026. Last updated October 11, 2026.*
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