The spawning system has been donated to a local university but I hope to still be involved with it going forward. Still funny to see it on skates.

Chocolate chip oatmeal Mount Olympus FTW!

I'm not positive but I think this is a cousin to that tap dancer:

Two examples of the opposite response to the unknown coral disease that killed the 1.0 version of the spawning system. These are from the kenti/bifaria complex and should grow in a corymbose morphology but instead grow arborescent?

In addition there was a distinct shift of the microbiome towards Mycobacter, Coxiella, and Clostridia, similar to what is suggested here:

www.nature.com/articles/ism...

Two weeks worth of algal growth in the spawning system. Over the past year there was a distinct shift from a coralline algae dominant environment to an Ulva/Bryopsis/hair algae environment. I suspect this is from iron overload similar to what is discussed here:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A little garden pond I built to give the local amphibians a place to stay. Really helps wash away the stress of the day.

A picture from the praziquantel bath demonstrating the bizarre “clubbed” appearance that arborescent corals develop when infected by the unknown coral disease. Many of these were preferentially predated by rabbitfish but did not revert to a normal phenotype following rabbitfish removal.

The same coral post baths in praziquantel and imidacloprid, now demonstrating significantly more normal growth. Upon reintroduction to the spawning system, this normalized growth regressed.

Another coral that typically develops in an arborescent pattern, here with a bizarre polyposis appearance. In addition, this coral was noted to be predated by rabbitfish but did not alter its phenotype post removal of said fish.

More examples of the same phenotype. The lack of branch growth and axial polyp overgrowth makes me wonder if this isn’t a disease centered in axial polyps which fail to have growth extension and thus develop skeletal overgrowth.

An example of the unknown coral disease in question. Note the lack of significant branching, over abundance of radial corallites, and blunted overgrown axials. This phenotype was seen across multiple species and genuses.

My land-based coral spawning system (version 1.0), fell prey to an unknown contagious coral disease and what appears to be excess iron build up. An unexpected job change (for the better) derailed it as well.

I’m hopeful that version 2.0 solves all of that in 2025.