Scanning Electron Microscopy of Montipora digitata

by | Nov 10, 2011 | Advanced Aquarist | 0 comments

 

Advanced Aquarist thanks Eric W. Roth (Mr. Microscope at Nano-reef.com) for the following content from his thread: “Mr. Microscope’s Electron and Light Microscopy of the Reef!.”  Acknowledgements to Northwestern University NUANCE Center for the use of their Electron Microscope.


 

Here is an image of the original frag. I was really sad to lose it since it had such amazing color. The polyps were bright red-orange and the flesh ranged from banana yellow to almost sky blue.

monti1.jpg

Sample prep on this sample was similar to the Pocillopora sample. Images were acquired on a Hitachi 4800 Field Emission Gun SEM.  The skeleton has some interesting structure:

monti2.jpg

monti4.jpg

 

Here’s where a polyp would come from:

monti5.jpg

And the tip of one of those tines from the polyp area:

monti6.jpg

I zoomed in a bit on the crystal structure of the skeleton (from about the middle of the above pic):

monti7.jpg

Here’s another area of the skeleton that I zoomed in on. There are some very different structures here:

monti8.jpg

Check out these spherical features I found. …who’d of guessed?

monti9.jpg

  • I'm a passionate aquarist of over 30 years, a coral reef lover, and the blog editor for Advanced Aquarist. While aquarium gadgets interest me, it's really livestock (especially fish), artistry of aquariums, and "method behind the madness" processes that captivate my attention.

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