Lines on Favites: Growth anomaly or natural?

[clarencesimple]

Dear all,

I am part of a research group in Okinawa, Japan and we came across quite a few Favites colonies with these grey/white lines (Please see attached images). Does anyone know if this is a growth anomaly or is it completely natural? Or is it some sort of disease?

Thank you

Clarence Sim.

 

[Josh]

That is likely some form of asexual division or reproduction.

Probably nothing to worry about unless you see tissue recession or the skeleton starts poking out.

 

[clarencesimple]

Hi Josh thank you so much for responding!

You definitely make sense. I would like to find out more about it.

The most common form of asexual reproduction I know is budding, and that would give the Favites Stylifera it's irregular shape (corallites of varying sizes), but in this case the lines look very neta. Do you know why such straight lines form?