Coral Line by: Aakash & Priya Pujara
Message: “Grow little corals, grow!”
Coral Type: Tabular
Coral species: Acropora hyacinthus
Note: We are still amazed by the 0% mortality rate during the 6 month monitoring stage for this line! Following the 6 month point, we can see some mortality as the line became infected by a coral disease a few months ago. White syndrome is a disease caused by microorganisms, and in an effort to save the 6 fragments which became badly infected, we cut the infected areas off with bone cutting pliers. Initially we saw no mortality, but after a few months algae started to grow on the coral skeleton which appeared to kill the living tissue resulting in mortality of a few fragments.We are also surprised by the slow growth rate. On average for this species, we are seeing an 11 mm per 3 month growth rate, but this line is the slowest of the A.hyacinthus lines, with some fragments only extending 1 mm over a 3 month period- this slow growth is evident in the photographs.
2 year update: We are sorry to report that this was one of the lines which died during the El Nino event of 2016. The warming event occurred in April 2016 caused the colonies of this line to bleach and die. To learn more about bleaching see our new bleaching page. Unfortunately, all of the lines of this species died during the bleaching event, both in the nursery and on the reef! Whilst this line has died, it’s data will be used in our research. For any questions or if you wish us to plant you a new line, please email me on [email protected]
