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

[Delbeek, Charles]

Very similar lesions can be found on Millepora in the Red Sea and in the Indo-Pacific and in this case they are caused by the blenny, Exallias brevis. Bruce Carlson described this in a paper in 2012 Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 463:297-299 (http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps_oa/m463p297.pdf) based on observations he made some 30 years previous. This became an issue a few years ago on the list as a researcher in the Red Sea published a paper describing it as a coral disease, and this was then corrected based on Bruce's observations (Zvuloni A, Armoza-Zvuloni R, Shaked Y (2011) Multifocal
bleaching of Millepora dichotoma in the Gulf of Aqaba (Eilat), Red Sea. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 441: 25−32.).

While I don't doubt what Andy said about the Yellowtail damsel, I would also not rule out the red-lipped blenny, Ophioblennius atlanticus, as those markings are quite large and look pretty much identical to the ones made by the Exallias blenny species.

Best regards,
Charles Delbeek

-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of William Precht
Sent: Friday, March 20, 2015 10:03 AM
To: Enviro - Force; coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Possible focused predation upon Millepora complanata by Ophioblennius atlanticus or O. macclurei

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?d
> l=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=sc
> i_arttext>
> 
> --
> Benjamin D'Avanzo
>    -Enviro-Force-
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