Plate coral experts.

[Notsolostfish]

Iv had this plate coral for over 4 months was doing amazinf. Till one day came home to find it all shrinked up, and the very next day it started to lose colors, and the mouth started to get wider, and more dead looking. So of course i tested my parameters. And it wasn’t my parameters. And more like the plate being a plate, where i learned that they die randomly.

So i decided since its going to die anyway. Why not try, and kfc dip it (antibiotics). Immediately few days after. I noticed that the plate is regaining color back, and the mouth fixing itself. I was shocked myself with this recovery. As i never thought it will even come back, let alone gain the mouth back. A month later, the tentacles came back but they are not fluffy as they used to be. And thats where my question comes.

Why when the plate regained health, its not as fluffy as used to be, and the tentacle shape/style is different? I attached couple of pictures, shows the damage on the mouth in the first one, and the second one when it started to heal, and mouth getting smaller.


Thats how it looks now is not the same as the picture i attached below long flowy tips. Weird how the shape completely changed after recovery. What do you guys think?

 

[lapin]

My guess is you have changed the zooxanthellae make up of your coral.

 

[Notsolostfish]

My guess is you have changed the zooxanthellae make up of your coral.

What do you mean? Like is there a fix for that? In the video does it look healthy to you?

 

[lapin]

Zooxanthellae: Corals Tutorial

National Ocean Service's Education Online tutorial on Corals?

oceanservice.noaa.gov

 

[Chrisv.]

My guess is you have changed the zooxanthellae make up of your coral.

Is that a thing that happens with antibiotic treatments? I've never thought about that possibility.

 

[lapin]

It’s just guessing my part. I do not have any studies for reference.

 

[Chrisv.]

It’s just guessing my part. I do not have any studies for reference.

I can't find any evidence that this is an issue after looking.

 

[lapin]

Sounds like there is room for a study. Antibiotics are very commonly used to excess, and now found in the environment along with many other drugs.

 

[Notsolostfish]

Sounds like there is room for a study. Antibiotics are very commonly used to excess, and now found in the environment along with many other drugs.

So are you saying the antibiotics changed the shape of the plate? I mean ik u said this is not a guranteed answer. But i mean as long as its healthy

 

[lapin]

It did not change the solid skeleton underneath but might have changed the makeup of the soft part.
It’s just a guess .

 

[Chrisv.]

Sounds like there is room for a study. Antibiotics are very commonly used to excess, and now found in the environment along with many other drugs.

Actually there is significant evidence that symbiotic dinoflagellates are not harmed by antibiotics. They are actually used to prevent contamination when they are grown in the lab:

"We found that an antibiotic cocktail of kanamycin (50 μgmL-1), ampicillin (100 μL-1) and streptomycin (50 μgmL-1) was the most effective at eliminating visual signs of contamination without apparent harm to a variety of Symbiodinium"

Granted not the same exact antibiotics or used, but pretty compelling.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Antibiotics affect the bacterial makeup in both the water column and tissue. Is it possible that bacterial depletion would change the zooanthellae in a coral? Highly doubtful. More likely than not you’re looking at scar tissue formation since the coral is healing. Much like a scar in a human is darker than the surrounding skin and eventually lighter, the coral’s tissue will change as it heals. Eventually it may go back to “normal” or may shift depending on this healing process. Zooanthellae are a big part of that as they will populate tissue differentially and produce coral differentially depending on both nutrients and the health of the coral’s tissue. My two cents.

 

[Chrisv.]

Antibiotics affect the bacterial makeup in both the water column and tissue. Is it possible that bacterial depletion would change the zooanthellae in a coral? Highly doubtful. More likely than not you’re looking at scar tissue formation since the coral is healing. Much like a scar in a human is darker than the surrounding skin and eventually lighter, the coral’s tissue will change as it heals. Eventually it may go back to “normal” or may shift depending on this healing process. Zooanthellae are a big part of that as they will populate tissue differentially and produce coral differentially depending on both nutrients and the health of the coral’s tissue. My two cents.

To add a layer to this: there is significant published evidence that although zooanthellae coexist with bacteria essentially all the time, the experimental elimination of the bacterial community did not impact zooanthellae.

 

[crazyfishmom]

To add a layer to this: there is significant published evidence that although zooanthellae coexist with bacteria essentially all the time, the experimental elimination of the bacterial community did not impact zooanthellae.

Indeed. Zooanthellae are eukaryotic and not affected by antibiotics which are meant to only affect prokaryotic organisms.

 

[Chrisv.]

Indeed. Zooanthellae are eukaryotic and not affected by antibiotics which are meant to only affect prokaryotic organisms.

Ah, more specifically, there is evidence that elimination of the adjacent bacterial community doesn't impact the zooanthellae. So it's not just that they are not killed by the abx. They are okay if the bacteria ARE killed.