FL Stoney Coral Tissue Disease and LR

[YankeeTankee]

As you may know, there's an awful disease believed to be bacterial spreading through the Caribbean now, it's already ravaged many of Florida's reefs.

I assume the chances are slim and without coral the bacteria may die (or not), but how likely do you suppose it is to bring this bacteria in on a piece of live rock that's been maricultured in FL. I know a few vendors whose designated areas are near the disease zones. I don't see any reason why free floating bacteria couldn't make it's way onto some rock off the reef but nearby, it's traveled much greater distances already.

 

[YankeeTankee]

bump, anyone follow Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCLTD)?

Also, might certain corals of pacific origin be immune to this? Don't see any reason why they would be.

 

[samnaz]

Bump, following. I’m also curious about this.

 

[C. Eymann]

bump, anyone follow Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCLTD)?

Also, might certain corals of pacific origin be immune to this? Don't see any reason why they would be.

A. palmata seems to be immune to it according to studies, it could be possible some Pacific species coukd be resistant to it.

Would I be worried about introducing it into my tank from gulf maricultured rock? probably not, much bigger fish to fry in that sense when it comes to introducing baddies from liverock

 

[AquaBiomics]

Interesting question!

Here is an article discussing this, and a paper that identified 5 major kinds of bacteria associated with the disease. Please note the authors do not claim to have identified these as pathogens causing the disease -- this is just an association. Still, it is recent progress on this important issue.

Since the authors of the study I linked used exactly the same genetic marker that I do in AquaBiomics testing of home aquariums, I couldn't resist comparing notes.

I have found perfect 100% matches for 4 out of 5 of these microbes in home aquariums. (I refer to the 5 types described in Table 1 of the paper I linked above).

• Unclassified (family Cryomorphaceae) -- found in 2 client tanks
• Fusibacter sp. (family Clostridiales XII) -- found in 4 client tanks
• Planktotalea sp. (family Rhodobacteraceae) -- found in 12 client tanks
• Vibrio sp. (family Vibriobacteraceae) -- found in 6 client tanks

I also want to emphasize that 3 of these 4 types (the last 3) have been previously associated with coral diseases, in other studies. So we are talking about multiple, peer reviewed studies by independent researchers that identified exactly these same types as being associated with coral disease. Including now the ongoing Caribbean coral disease outbreaks. And they show up in some home aquariums...

I was relieved to find that these were mostly absent in my home tanks, but some were abundant in my experimental tanks at work! It will be interesting to see how corals do when I transplant them to my experimental tanks in the near future...

 

[YankeeTankee]

Interesting question!

Here is an article discussing this, and a paper that identified 5 major kinds of bacteria associated with the disease. Please note the authors do not claim to have identified these as pathogens causing the disease -- this is just an association. Still, it is recent progress on this important issue.

Since the authors of the study I linked used exactly the same genetic marker that I do in AquaBiomics testing of home aquariums, I couldn't resist comparing notes.

I have found perfect 100% matches for 4 out of 5 of these microbes in home aquariums. (I refer to the 5 types described in Table 1 of the paper I linked above).

• Unclassified (family Cryomorphaceae -- found in 2 client tanks
• Fusibacter sp. (family Clostridiales XII) -- found in 4 client tanks
• Planktotalea sp. (family Rhodobacteraceae) -- found in 12 client tanks
• Vibrio sp. (family Vibriobacteraceae) -- found in 5 client tanks

I also want to emphasize that 3 of these 4 types (the last 3) have been previously associated with coral diseases. So we are talking about multiple, peer reviewed studies by independent researchers that identified exactly these same types as being associated with coral disease. Including now the ongoing Caribbean coral disease outbreaks. And they show up in some home aquariums...

I was relieved to find that these were mostly absent in my home tanks, but some were abundant in my experimental tanks at work! It will be interesting to see how corals do when I transplant them to my experimental tanks in the near future...

How many if any of these tanks were you able to observe/see pics of? Did they look like thriving aquariums or did they look sickly?

 

[AquaBiomics]

How many if any of these tanks were you able to observe/see pics of? Did they look like thriving aquariums or did they look sickly?

I can sometimes answer questions quickly because I can write a program to quickly analyze DNA sequence data Unfortunately real life observations of client tanks can't be automated in the same way, so it will take some time to dig into this.

But for an interesting example, the last one on my list (an unclassified Vibrio sp.) shows up in 6 client tanks. Of these, I have personally seen 4, and know the owners.

Like all my reefing friends, every time we talk about corals they tell me about the problems they're having but as an outside observer, I think their tanks look great. Maybe only the owner can really tell how their tank is doing, because they see it every day. The other 2 the clients uploaded full tank shots, and they similarly look great. 2 of the owners reported coral tissue necrosis, while the others reported most or all livestock were healthy.

Again this is specific to one of the pathogens, but I use this as an example of what it might look like when we have complete data (observations on all tanks). I conclude that the presence of these pathogens - which show up in only a small fraction of tanks - is not a death sentence for all corals in the tank, but we have multiple lines of evidence that they are associated with disease...

 

[YankeeTankee]

Thanks for sharing! It will be interesting to discover exactly which pathogen is causing SCTLD.