Interesting treatment for coral tissue loss?

[bblumberg]

Hi everyone,

I happened upon this article in Science Daily and thought it might be of interest here. The article is open access so anyone can read it without restriction. I am no expert in coral disease, but this looks to be useful for treating tissue necrosis in at least stony corals. I'd be interested to hear the views of any experts in this area.

The main point of the article is that amoxicillin can treat tissue loss in Caribbean stony corals very effectively.

Summary is here
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210422093847.htm

______________________

Assessing the effectiveness of two intervention methods for stony coral tissue loss disease on Montastraea cavernosa​

• Erin N. Shilling,
• Ian R. Combs &
• Joshua D. Voss

Scientific Reports volume 11, Article number: 8566 (2021) Cite this article

Abstract​

Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) was first observed in Florida in 2014 and has since spread to multiple coral reefs across the wider Caribbean. The northern section of Florida’s Coral Reef has been heavily impacted by this outbreak, with some reefs experiencing as much as a 60% loss of living coral tissue area. We experimentally assessed the effectiveness of two intervention treatments on SCTLD-affected Montastraea cavernosa colonies in situ. Colonies were tagged and divided into three treatment groups: (1) chlorinated epoxy, (2) amoxicillin combined with CoreRx/Ocean Alchemists Base 2B, and (3) untreated controls. The experimental colonies were monitored periodically over 11 months to assess treatment effectiveness by tracking lesion development and overall disease status. The Base 2B plus amoxicillin treatment had a 95% success rate at healing individual disease lesions but did not necessarily prevent treated colonies from developing new lesions over time. Chlorinated epoxy treatments were not significantly different from untreated control colonies, suggesting that chlorinated epoxy treatments are an ineffective intervention technique for SCTLD. The results of this experiment expand management options during coral disease outbreaks and contribute to overall knowledge regarding coral health and disease.
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[vetteguy53081]

Let’s first focus on some of the logical reasons why RTN might occur. One has to do with stability. SPS will become cranky and stress out if certain parameters such as alkalinity, calcium, pH, salinity or temperature swing significantly up or down. The wild swings will put corals in a weakened state and make them more prone to some sort of infection. Stray voltage from a power head or some other piece of equipment is another possible culprit as are pests such as Acro Eating Flatworms (AEFW). RTN can also happen when granular ferric oxide (GFO)

is overdosed, something I experienced with a former tank.
Mike Paletta used a combination of witch hazel and melafix for tissue necrosis. Witch Hazel is a disinfectant which makes sense.