Inferred Growth of Juvenile French Grunts, Haemulon Flavolineatum, and Schoolmaster, Lutjanus Apodus, in Mangrove and Seagrass Habitats

AbstractCleaning mutualisms are important interactions on coral reefs. Intraspecific variation in cleaning rate and behaviour occurs geographically and is often attributed to local processes. However, our understanding of fine-scale variation is limited, but would allow us to control for geography and region-specific behavioural patterns. Here, we compare the cleaning activity of Pederson's cleaner shrimp (Ancylomenes pedersoni) on two neighbouring, yet ecologically dissimilar, reef systems in Honduras: Banco Capiro, an offshore bank close to significant land runoff with high coral cover but a depleted fish population, and an oligotrophic fringing reef around the island of Utila, with lower coral cover but high fish abundance and diversity. The proportion of realized to potential fish clientele was <60% at both sites, and the composition of clientele was neither reflective of the demographics of the resident assemblages at each site nor similar between sites. Parrotfishes represented 13–15% of total fish abundance at both sites yet accounted for >50% (Banco Capiro) and 10% (Utila) of all cleans. Conversely, the schoolmaster snapper (Lutjanus apodus) represented ~1% of total fish abundance at both sites yet accounted for 40% (Utila) and 1% (Banco Capiro) of all cleans. After standardizing our cleaning rate data by clientele abundance, we find that clientele at Banco Capiro engage in over four times as many cleaning encounters per hour with A. pedersoni than at Utila. Our study highlights the variable nature of coral reef cleaning interactions and the need to better understand the ecological and environmental drivers of this biogeographic variation.

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Discrimination of French grunts (Haemulon flavolineatum, Desmarest, 1823) from mangrove and coral reef habitats using otolith microchemistry

Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology ◽

10.1016/j.jembe.2004.02.021 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 308 (2) ◽

pp. 169-183 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

P.M. Chittaro ◽

B.J. Fryer ◽

P.F. Sale

Keyword(s):

Coral Reef ◽

Otolith Microchemistry ◽

Haemulon Flavolineatum

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Praziquantel degradation in marine aquarium water

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.1857 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. e1857 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Amber Thomas ◽

Matthew R. Dawson ◽

Helen Ellis ◽

M. Andrew Stamper

Keyword(s):

Day Treatment ◽

Parasitic Infections ◽

Therapeutic Level ◽

Marine Animals ◽

Linear Mixed Effects ◽

Haemulon Flavolineatum ◽

Time Period ◽

Marine System ◽

Aquarium Water ◽

Best Fit

Praziquantel (PZQ) is a drug commonly utilized to treat both human schistosomiasis and some parasitic infections and infestations in animals. In the aquarium industry, PZQ can be administered in a “bath” to treat the presence of ectoparasites on both the gills and skin of fish and elasmobranchs. In order to fully treat an infestation, the bath treatment has to maintain therapeutic levels of PZQ over a period of days or weeks. It has long been assumed that, once administered, PZQ is stable in a marine environment throughout the treatment interval and must be mechanically removed, but no controlled experiments have been conducted to validate that claim. This study aimed to determine if PZQ would break down naturally within a marine aquarium below its 2 ppm therapeutic level during a typical 30-day treatment: and if so, does the presence of fish or the elimination of all living biological material impact the degradation of PZQ? Three 650 L marine aquarium systems, each containing 12 fish (French grunts:Haemulon flavolineatum), and three 650 L marine aquariums each containing no fish were treated with PZQ (2 ppm) and concentrations were measured daily for 30 days. After one round of treatment, the PZQ was no longer detectable in any system after 8 (±1) days. The subsequent two PZQ treatments yielded even faster PZQ breakdown (non-detectable after 2 days and 2 ± 1 day, respectively) with slight variations between systems. Linear mixed effects models of the data indicate that day and trial most impact PZQ degradation, while the presence of fish was not a factor in the best-fit models. In a completely sterilized marine system (0.5 L) PZQ concentration remained unchanged over 15 days, suggesting that PZQ may be stable in a marine system during this time period. The degradation observed in non-sterile marine systems in this study may be microbial in nature. This work should be taken into consideration when providing PZQ bath treatments to marine animals to ensure maximum drug administration.

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