coral disease in the Philippines

Greta Smith Aeby greta at hawaii.edu
Mon Nov 18 16:09:38 EST 1996


Laurie, 
     I work on a trematode which encysts in Porites coral and does produce 
abnormalities within the coral.  Do the spots ever turn pink?  How big 
do the nodules eventually become?  Is the lumpy appearance due to the 
coral polyp swelling up?  If it is the parasite I work on you can take a 
pair of forceps and scrape the swollen, infected tissue off and smear it 
on a microscope slide and you should be able to find a small, distinct  
'bubble'.  This is the encysted trematode.  Let me know if it is.  If you 
are interested I have published some stuff on this system.   

Greta 

On Thu, 14 Nov 1996, Laurie Jeanne Raymundo wrote: 

> To anybody out there:  I am currently transplanting fragments of Porites 
> attenuata (a branching sp.) between two reefs in the central philippines. 
> I seem to have come across a disease in some of my fragments (about 10%) in 
> one site.  Symptoms are: initial white bleachy spots, about 4-5mm in 
> diameter, followed (weeks to a month later, but not always) by nodules of 
> about the same size which develop and grow outward from the area of the 
> spots.  The fragments then take on a lumpy, misshapen appearance.  No 
> mortalities so far.  I have also seen the spots on a massive porites.  I 
> have no information on this at all and would appreciate any 
> comments/suggested readings/ information that anyone could pass on. 
>  
> thanks 
>  
> Laurie Raymundo 
>  
>  
>  



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