Nemenzophyllia turbida (Fox coral)

I must say that finding and seeing Nemenzophyllia turbida in the wild was one of the most interesting discoveries and a high point in my diving career. This coral was only first described in 1981 (Hodgson and Ross 1981) and was questioned as being a true species for over a decade more (Veron 1986, pers comm.). There is almost nothing known of its abundance, range, or habitat. The collectors described Nemenzophyllia as terribly common and, where we found it, it was unquestionably common. However, Nemenzophyllia seems to have locally abundant but patchy distribution. Its true abundance remains unknown, but could be either very great or very limited.

Where is Fox coral found and collected? It is found in vast dense tracts on the seafloor bottom 33-35m down, mixed equally with free-living Goniopora spp. Other corals in smaller numbers consist of Alveopora, Sarcophyton, zoanthids, Sinularia, Euphyllia, and a possibly new species of Lobophyllia. Nemenzophyllia turbida is found in fields, sitting on the bottom with polyps facing upward. The colonies are mostly broken apart, and they are perhaps asexually populating these fields by bioerosion-induced fragmentation as no buds were seen on colonies. The entire area is bathed in silty deposits and sits perhaps a half-meter above the surrounding seafloor, a platform composed entirely of the dead skeletons of corals found there as silt and bioeroding organisms bury and erode previous growth. The corals are all free-living, none are attached. Goniopora and Nemenzophyllia exist in constant contact with each other, with no notable competition occurring. Almost every colony of coral is touching every adjacent colony. In places, Nemenzophyllia abundance became lower, leaving mostly all Goniopora on the bottom. We are not sure if this is a natural patchy distribution or the result of harvest. It appeared to be the latter The water flow at this depth was very low, and the area, although nearer to small islands and closer to shore than the deepwater Trachyphyllia site, was still between islands in the channel. The light levels were very low, and some very random occasional bleaching was occurring in some colonies of several genera - we are unsure why this might be happening, given the temperature and the light available. Also found here was the very similar looking and recently described Plerogyra discus (Veron 2000). It was not common, and was found blending almost perfectly with Nemenzophyllia. We also saw this coral being collected and sold, not surprisingly, as Fox coral.

Blastomussa spp. (Swollen or Closed Brain coral)

Blastomussa is comprised of two species, B. merleti and B. wellsi; both collected for the aquarium trade primarily from Indonesian waters. Like Cynarina, collectors harvest Blastomussa wherever they can find it using searching techniques, and they acknowledge that it can be hard to find. It was one of the rarest corals in our many transects and only one or two were found on any given transect; at many sites there were none found, even by searching. They appear to be found on the deeper part of the reef slope on fringing reefs and on deeper submerged patch reefs. Blastomussa are found in small colonies, usually no more than a dozen polyps per colony, more typically three to five. They were found partly to almost completely protected from any direct light and often occupied vertical positions. All recorded colonies were B. wellsi, and only a single colony of B. merleti was found at all. Perhaps more surprisingly is that there is no quota in Indonesia for B. wellsi, only for B. merleti, and yet no colonies of that species were found or seen at collection or exporting facilities. There were no particular characteristics that could be used to delineate the habitat where these colonies were found except that they seem to prefer sheltered deeper locations, as has been reported elsewhere for the genus.

Others, Briefly

Plerogyra spp. We found Plerogyra in most habitats, mostly on the fringing and patch reef slopes. Colonies were typically quite small and aquarium sized. They were fairly common, and both the normal and "octobubble morph" were present. Also present, but much less common was the branching Plerogyra simplex. Like Blastomussa, they were mostly oriented on vertical surfaces (Table 10).

Goniopora spp./Alveopora spp./Fungia spp. What can I say about Goniopora? It's still wrong, in my opinion, to be taking so many of these corals from the wild only to have such a terribly high percentage of them die in aquariums. But, they are everywhere in the Spermonde archipelago: in massive droves, in monospecific fields, and not in monospecific fields. However, this is not the case in many areas of Indonesia and Sulawesi. If anything, the conditions of Spermonde again point to aquarium-collected Goniopora thriving in high nutrient and turbid waters. Alveopora were similar in their habitat range, occurring most commonly in the Nemenzophyllia area, but were much less common in all areas.

Perhaps the only genus more common than Goniopora on most of these reefs was Fungia, a genus only conspicuously absent from the deepwater algal flat areas and the deep channel where Nemenzophyllia was found. The many species of Fungia were not identified although dozens were present and in abundance that placed several dozen within a square meter of some transect areas. Guidelines such as those given in Aquarium Corals (Borneman 2000) may give a better guide to conditions they require.

Montipora spp. - While occurring on the patch, fringing and submerged shallow to mid-depth reefs, most of the species of Montipora commonly seen in the aquarium trade were found in very high abundance in the nearshore areas where the drab Trachyphyllia were found. The most common species were the foliaceous and turbinate forms usually sold collectively (and often incorrectly) as Montipora capricornis. However, Indonesians are not prone to collecting small-polyped corals, despite their ready availability and great abundance throughout the country.

Galaxea spp. - Possibly the third most common coral genus found at most of the fringing, patch and submerged mid-depth reefs was Galaxea. At the nearshore site where the drab Trachyphyllia were found (see photos above), Galaxea was the dominant genus, and formed expansive coverage, often covering nearly 100% of large areas. It seems to thrive most in these muddy, silty waters, although it was also common and did occur in smaller colonies in clearer water.

Summary

By now, I have done some fairly extensive diving in Indonesia and have visited some very diverse reef types and sites during several trips. I have seen some of the most pristine off shore areas of clearwater and some of the muckiest, silt-filled areas. Without question, the abundance and morphotypes I have described here do not fit all the sites where these corals could be found, nor does it describe their range. However, for aquarists, I have seen the areas where large numbers of corals collected for the aquarium trade are harvested. It doesn't matter so much that one might find these species in the Moluccas far offshore, or perhaps in the Komodos. Corals are not being collected there. Corals are collected from limited sites of a similar nature, near to airports. Here, in the Spermonde Archipelago, the characteristics given are true for the sites where corals are being collected, and for those corals that end up in the aquarium trade. Future surveys at different sites may prove that there is more of the story that needs to be told. For now, though, I hope this information is just the beginning of the type of information needed by aquarists in order to replicate habitat conditions for some of the popular corals they are keeping, and that such information can be used to increase survival in aquariums and reduce impact on wild coral reefs in the area. The additional appendices at the end of this paper will provide summary data for this work.

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Acknowledgements:

Thanks to Andrew Bruckner, Caroline Raymakers, Ed Lovell, Suharsono, John Fields and the other participants of the workshop in Jakarta and the assessment team. Also thanks to NOAA/NMFS, AKKII, and the other sponsors who made this work possible.

References and Literature Used

Borneman, Eric. 2001. Aquarium Corals: Selection, Husbandry and Natural History. TFH
Publications/Microcosm, Ltd., Neptune City, NJ. 464 pp.

Bruckner, A.J. 2001 Proceedings of the International Workshop on the Trade in Stony
Corals: Development of Sustainable Management Guidelines April 9-12 2001 Jakarta, Indonesia.

Hodgson, Gregor and Michael A. Ross. 1981. "Unreported scleractinian corals from the
Philippines." Proc 4th Int Coral Reef Symp, Manila 2: 171-175.

Raymakers Caroline. 2001. "Review of trade in live corals from Indonesia." TRAFFIC
Europe, Brussels. 98pp.

Veron, J.E.N. 2000. Corals of the World Vol 2. AIMS, Townsville: 86-87.

Veron, J.E.N. 1986. Corals of Australia and the Indo-Pacific. University of Hawaii Press,
Honolulu, Hawaii. 644 pp.

For a photo of the parasitic gall crab of Catalaphyllia, visit www.rshimek.com

Additional Appendices:

Appendix A | Appendix B | Appendix C | Appendix D | Appendix E | Appendix F | Appendix G | Appendix H

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