[Coral-List] Possible focused predation upon Millepora complanata by Ophioblennius atlanticus or O. macclurei

[William Precht]

Those circular lesions are caused by territory marking of the Yellowtail Damselfish.  Andrew Bruckner was the first to accurately describe these lesions on Acropora palmata in a paper back in 2003. Numerous people have misidentified these markings as disease. Similar circular markings can also be found on Siderastrea siderea. I recently submitted these observations on all three species as a Reef Site

Hope that helps

Bill

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 20, 2015, at 10:21 AM, Enviro - Force <enviroforce.fl at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Can anyone help identify the origin of these circular/semi-circular scars?
> Your help would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Thought disease initially, not aware of any fish that repeatedly fed on
> this hydrozoan and had never observed focused predation like this before (
> Hermodice carunculata grazing patterns didn't match).
> 
> Noted "scraping" on a few circular scars and "crescent- like" mark orbiting
> some of the scars. Surge on reef prevented me from using
> a reference scale.  Assume white areas are 1-2 cm in diameter.
> 
> Dropbox link to the frames from my dive at Western Sambos, Florida Keys, on
> 12 March 2015. There are edited/non edited photos to highlight features.
> https://www.dropbox.com/sh/e8sf1b5oyrfwy1r/AAB0r9oyW75DlZ24urbog14Ca?dl=0
> 
> LS yielded little. Below are 2 relevant articles the first being most
> relevant:
> 
> 
> *Reef Check Spotlight: Mystery in the Red Sea - Circular feeding scars
> observed on fire coral*www.reefcheck.org/newsletter/072012/
> 
> *First record of the fireworm Hermodice carunculata (Annelida, Polychaeta)
> preying on colonies of the fire coral Millepora alcicornis (Cnidaria,
> Hydrozoa)*
> www.scielo.br/scielo.php
> <http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1676-06032012000200022&script=sci_arttext>
> 
> -- 
> Benjamin D'Avanzo
>    -Enviro-Force-
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list