Sclerites
Some colonies of the Cladiella are very similar in shapes and sizes to the Alcyonium and Sinularia (Fabricius & Alderslade 2001). Therefore, in order to positively confirm the genus of these corals, an examination of the sclerites was carried out.
Project 3:
Sclerites observation to clearly identify the genus of the selected soft coral.
Hypothesis: The sclerites should be dumbbell shaped or roughended double-heads as the soft coral was hypothesized to be Cladiella species.
Methods:
- A small fraction of the coral is acquired and placed in a plate.
- Few drops of bleach is added into the fraction and left for 5 minutes.
- The fraction is then grinded into little pieces and the smashed pieces are placed onto a microscope slide using a pipette.
- Observations are made using the microscope.
Results:
As shown in the picture below, the sclerites found under the microscope are very minute and roughended dumbbell shaped. The quantity of sclerites discovered is not very significant.
Discussions:
The discovery of great amount of roughended dumbbell shaped sclerites reveal that the soft coral selected is indeed a Cladiella species (Fabricius& Alderslade 2001). The insignificant quantity suggests that further grinding of the fraction may be required in order to extract more sclerites. |