of the surface sterilisation was checked by making an imprint
of the treated tissue on agar media (Schulz et al. 1998). Since
the sponges were damaged by even the most gentle of these
methods without destroying the fungal propagules, small
pieces of inner tissue of sponge material were rinsed three
times with sterile arti®cial sea water (ASW) (Ho$ ller, Ko$ nig &
Wright 1999a). Both fresh and frozen sponges were aseptically
cut into small cubes, approx. 0±5 cm$. 50±75 cubes of each
sample was placed onto each of the employed isolation
media (Table 1). All chemicals, if not stated otherwise, were
research grade and supplied by Merck.