In your framework we find another super guest: the sailfin tang (Zebrasoma veliferum). It is a marine reef tang in the fish family Acanthuridae. They may live at water depths of 1 – 60 m (3 – 200 ft) or more. The fish grow to a maximum length of 40 cm (15.8 in). It has an extensive range throughout Oceania, the Indian Ocean, and the South Pacific. They are herbivorous fish specializing in filamentous algae. Though their skin is light beige with stripes, it can turn dark brown under stress. The sailfin tang is decorated with broad, pale yellow bands that alternate with darker bands over its body. The bending extends into both dorsal and anal fins. On the darker bands are yellow dots and stripes. The caudal fin is yellow. The head of the fish is white adorned with yellow dots. A dark band with yellow dots runs across the eye and another dark band with dots is located right behind the eye. Juvenile specimens look similar to the adult fish, but with more yellow colouring.
The Dascyllus aruanus, known commonly as humbug damselfish, has found in your coral frame its home. This particular fish is known by multiple common names, such as three stripe damselfish, humbug dascyllus, or black and white damselfish. They only reach an adult size of 3-4 inches (7.6-10 cm). Sporting three broad black stripes on a white body, the humbug damselfish has a zebra like appearance. The stripes run slightly off vertical through the eyes and mouth, midbody and bisecting the caudal peduncle, making it half black and half white. There are several contestants for the title of most important reef fish family, but the Damselfish are certainly one of the front-runners. Not only are there numerous species, but also many of these species are present on Maldivian reefs in prodigious numbers. The humbug damselfish that you can see in the picture is associated with isolated coral heads in sheltered inshore habitats. Like all damselfish, they can be territorial and aggressive, especially as they get older.
Coral reefs are one of the most diverse systems on the planet, and sometimes corals can be new substrate for sessile gastropods, such as Ceraesignum maximum or otherwise known as an Operculate Worm Snail (Vermetidae, Mollusca). Individuals of C. maximum live in tubes embedded in the carbonate framework of the reef flat and secrete mucus nets extending ~10 cm around the individuals. The sticky nets billow under the turbulent action of impinging waves and indiscriminately trap suspended particles. The nets are withdrawn at regular intervals and consumed. In the picture it is visible the aperture of the tube, on an Acropora living on your frame.
What is biodiversity? Biodiversity is the variety of living species that can be found in a particular place, for instance the number of coral species on your coral frame. Coral reefs are said to have the highest biodiversity of any ecosystem on the planet—even more than a tropical rainforest. In this particular image you can see two species of the Acropora genus, one of the fastest growing species of coral. Since we collect broken fragments from the bottom and not original colonies, the biodiversity on the frames is often between 1 and 4 species of corals, depending on location of collection. You will see that these small pieces have already grown quite a bit in the one year since construction. Of course we always try to keep the diversity high between all of the frames and during maintenance we often add new pieces onto the frame. Hopefully soon we will see lots of different marine species occupying your frame, which is the goal of our Coral Conservation Project.
The Dascyllus aruanus, known commonly as humbug damselfish, has found in your coral frame its home. This particular fish is known by multiple common names, such as three stripe damselfish, humbug dascyllus, or black and white damselfish. They only reach an adult size of 3-4 inches (7.6-10 cm). Sporting three broad black stripes on a white body, the humbug damselfish has a zebra like appearance. The stripes run slightly off vertical through the eyes and mouth, midbody and bisecting the caudal peduncle, making it half black and half white. There are several contestants for the title of most important reef fish family, but the Damselfish are certainly one of the front-runners. Not only are there numerous species, but also many of these species are present on Maldivian reefs in prodigious numbers. The humbug damselfish that you can see in the picture is associated with isolated coral heads in sheltered inshore habitats. Like all damselfish, they can be territorial and aggressive, especially as they get older.
This is your 6 month frame progress update. Your frame is doing fantastic!
Looking at your frame, we can see lots of new growth, especially of the acropora corals (the branching & fast growing corals). We can see some of the corals are competing for space, which is a good problem to have, it means your frame is thriving. We can also see that your frame is contributing to the overall health of the coral ecosystem. We see lots of life such as little fish, crabs, worms and mollusks around your frame. Overall your frame has survived the warm months of March, April and May just fine, unfortunately some of the other frames in our colony weren’t so lucky.
Over the following months we will continue with maintenance to keep harmful algae and predators off your frame and to give your frame the best chance for successful growth.
Have you ever wondered how do corals grow bigger or how their branches are getting longer? Coral reefs are mainly built by stony or hard corals, together with their endosymbiotic algae (algae living into the corals), zooxanthellae. To give you some information on how the calcification process works. The main elements needed to build the skeleton are Ca2+ (Calcium ions) and DIC (Dissolved Inorganic Carbon). Both these elements are transported into a specific area of the coral called the “calcifying region”, which is situated under each single polyp. Here, the calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is formed throughout a chemical reaction. Finally, the calcium carbonate (or technically crystals of aragonite) is deposited to form the skeleton. The process involves the polyp’s cells and the zooxanthellae and by the mutualistic work of these two counterparts the skeleton is formed. However, if for any reasons (i.e. high temperature) one of the two parts is not working properly the process stops and the coral may die.
We have some unfortunate news this month as we are starting to see some evidence of bleaching around the coral frames. Coral bleaching can be ascribed to warming ocean waters for extended periods of time where the symbiotic algae (Zooxanthellae) living inside the tissue coral is expelled by their host and in turn leave behind a bleaching white skeleton. This algae shares a mutualistic relationship with the corals; the coral provides shelter to the algae and in turn the algae can provide as much as 90% of the nutrients produced by photosynthesis which is used towards their growth. Corals can survive bleaching events such as this, but if they are subject to more stress or prolonged heated waters, they will surely die. Unfortunately, your frame is also showing minor signs of bleaching of around 10%. This is a rough estimate based on the amount of bleaching fragments of the entire frame. As you can see from the images, their white skeletons are not something anyone can miss, especially in the water. The degree of bleaching on your frame varies from fragment to fragment but typically looks like a little bit of surface bleaching (those directly exposed to the sun’s rays) and considered not too threatening, hopefully they will recover soon.
Unfortunately, there is not much we can do at this stage, but wait to see whether they recover or not in the next months. Should they not recover and they are completely dead, they will be removed from the frame and replaced with new live ones. This is of course a major setback for our coral conservation project, but it is also the reality we are dealing with today.
The Dascyllus aruanus, known commonly as humbug damselfish, has found in your coral frame its home. This particular fish is known by multiple common names, such as three stripe damselfish, humbug dascyllus, or black and white damselfish. They only reach an adult size of 3-4 inches (7.6-10 cm). Sporting three broad black stripes on a white body, the humbug damselfish has a zebra like appearance. The stripes run slightly off vertical through the eyes and mouth, midbody and bisecting the caudal peduncle, making it half black and half white. There are several contestants for the title of most important reef fish family, but the Damselfish are certainly one of the front-runners. Not only are there numerous species, but also many of these species are present on Maldivian reefs in prodigious numbers. The humbug damselfish that you can see in the picture is associated with isolated coral heads in sheltered inshore habitats. Like all damselfish, they can be territorial and aggressive, especially as they get older.
Here, we are excited to tell you about this nice colony living on your frame, the species is Pocillopora verrucosa, also known as cauliflower corals. They are usually cream, brown or pink, sometimes blue in color and have a widespread distribution within the Indo-West Pacific and Eastern Tropical Pacific regions. Colonies may grow up to 30 cm in diameter, their branches are medium sized and are covered with uniform verrucae (little bumps). This species is typically found in shallow water from exposed reef fronts to protected fringing reefs. They are also home to species of smaller fish that finds refuge within the healthy branches of these corals. Here you can see the one part have died completely, which is unfortunate, but seems to be growing nice and healthy along the sides. We will keep monitoring your frame to avoid more loss such as this
Looking at one particular fragment on your frame which you can see is completely colonized by some little, brown and green organisms called Ascidia. The species is called Didemnum molle (also known as the green barrel sea squirt or the green reef sea-squirt.), it is very common in the Indo-Pacific area; but don’t worry, it’s not a threat for corals, they can live together in peace, however when they increase their biodiversity on the frames they are removed to minimize competition with corals. An Ascidia is a filter-feeder, this means that it filters water looking for plankton to feed itself. The green color is given by some little green algae living in symbiosis with them, in this way the algae is protected by the predation and the Ascidia can receive energy from its little hosts. This particular fragment has already died some time ago as you can see from its brown algae covered color. This sometimes happened when corals receive high amounts of stress such as increased water temperatures, during maintenance we remove these pieces and replace them with new ones from the reef
Looking at your frame, you will see that it is doing amazing and the corals are really growing well since the last update even after the heated months and some stormy weather. We have done some recent maintenance on all the frames which include cleaning them, removing the invasive algae and coral predators to maximize growth. In the upcoming post we will show you close-ups of your frame and the coral fragments, with some interesting facts and findings about those that are on your frame. After 6 months you will see a similar post showing once again the progress of your frame.
The coral frames are placed on sandy bottom areas in order to create new structured reefs. Since coral reefs are quite spread out in nature, often creating small reef patches here and there, frames are often placed near these an existing colonies, as you can see from the image above. This is advantageous for the frame since small fish populations that already inhabit this reef will move in and around the new frame, at the same time cleaning it from algae or using it as a shelter. Furthermore, when existing colonies start with their fertilization, frames close by may provide a solid foundation for new planula to attach itself.
