!!!Herpes outbreak!!!

Diesel · Feb 18, 2016

Now we finally know how to treat AEFW we have this popping up!!

http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archi...r-marine-viruses-linked-coral-bleaching-event

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00127/abstract

nervousmonkey · Feb 18, 2016

Also another reason to wash your hands before and after putting them in your tank!! Imagine telling your doctor you got herpes from your Acro colony...

Diesel · Feb 18, 2016

This hobby never cease to amaze me

fishdoc11 · Feb 18, 2016

FWIW I am a veterinarian and I can tell you most animals carry at least one type of herpes virus, many, like humans, carry several. The good thing is that they typically can't be transmitted to other species. That means you can't catch herpes from a cat for example. Not for certain whether you can catch it from an acro but that wouldn't be the main reason I would wash my hands after touching one

Diesel · Feb 18, 2016

Ugh, thanks Doc.
I almost put the Diesel tank up for sale.

Hunter S Thompson · Feb 18, 2016

Therein lies the cure.

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coral_medicine.html

Pete polyp · Feb 18, 2016

f.lloyd.taylor said:
Also another reason to wash your hands before and after putting them in your tank!! Imagine telling your doctor you got herpes from your Acro colony...

Better yet..... try selling that one to your wife!

Reef Pets · Feb 18, 2016

Diesel said:
Now we finally know how to treat AEFW we have this popping up!!

http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archi...r-marine-viruses-linked-coral-bleaching-event

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2016.00127/abstract

Creating an alibi huh? "Oh honey I swear I got herpes from my coral"

McMullen · Feb 19, 2016

Interesting

jhnnle01 · Feb 19, 2016

so if cipro (antibiotic) is used for anemonae, has anyone tried acyclovir (antiviral) for sps bleaching? Acyclovir is cheap and easy to get

Shep · Feb 19, 2016

Side note ~66% of the world's population as HSV

Reef Pets · Feb 19, 2016

HPV? Sexy Mike has it @sexycorals he was telling me about it..

nervousmonkey · Feb 19, 2016

Pete polyp said:
Better yet..... try selling that one to your wife!

I would be dead more quickly than an RTN'ed Acro that you find bleached in the morning Pete. Uh uh. Ain't saying that. "That was NOT my Acro honey. I don't know how that nasty little coral got in there, I swear"

nervousmonkey · Feb 19, 2016

All joking aside about getting an STD from our corals (I really really really love my corals though...), this is pretty cool news. Thanks @Diesel for pointing out those articles. There is a lot of information we can glean through coral histology, proteomics, metabolomics, genomic analysis. There is so much that we don't know about corals. One would think that over the hundreds of thousands of years of evolutionary history in developing strategies to combat diseases, stationary corals would be able to defend themselves against something like herpes, but I guess lack of opposable thumbs keeps them from being able to use protection... OK, one more joke. Back to the point, with a simple swab of coral tissue, we can learn a lot about what is causing a coral to become stressed, or conversely, producing proteins signaling growth (GFP for example). What would we call that test though? Polyp antagonist proteomics? So do our corals now have to have yearly polyp antagonist proteomic smears done?

Poor acros, they suffer enough by my hand without subjecting them to PAP smears too.

Diesel · Feb 19, 2016

PAP treatment ............. new term in the acro world.

nervousmonkey · Feb 19, 2016

HAHA! If I actually started saying that I was taking a sample of my acros for a PAP, people would think I was nuts. Or super cool and cutting edge. Ooohh. LOL!