Hammer coral melting - thoughts?

[604reefer]

Originally Posted by Myka

I totally agree!

I'd be more inclined to believe that there is some sort of disease or pest that is not known about.

Tried a last ditch lugols dip the other day and she dead . Everything else is killing it so I think it was an "STN" like situation, only had it about 5 weeks and it declined a bit each day.

Anyone know if I leave the skeleton in the tank if it could bud a new head? Or if all the polyps/tissue are gone and amphipods/hermits crawling on it = time to toss?

[dino]

I have had lps that I thought was absolutely dead grow back on occasion but don't get your hopes up

[DKoKoMan]

Originally Posted by 604reefer

Tried a last ditch lugols dip the other day and she dead . Everything else is killing it so I think it was an "STN" like situation, only had it about 5 weeks and it declined a bit each day.

Anyone know if I leave the skeleton in the tank if it could bud a new head? Or if all the polyps/tissue are gone and amphipods/hermits crawling on it = time to toss?

IMO if it's dead and cuc is on it I would get rid of it. There could be some sort of pest or disease which may pollute your water. I personally would weigh out the risks and considering you have several other hammers I wouldn't want anything spreading to them.

[604reefer]

Originally Posted by DKoKoMan

IMO if it's dead and cuc is on it I would get rid of it. There could be some sort of pest or disease which may pollute your water. I personally would weigh out the risks and considering you have several other hammers I wouldn't want anything spreading to them.

Good call! I was just holding out hope, it was orange branching...and expensive

[DKoKoMan]

What it an Aussie coral? Those are sometimes harder to keep if your water parameters are not consistent.

[Dearth]

Sorry late to the conversation here I have a huge hammer and frogspawn colony/garden in my tank I have two types of hammer the common green and the other is a purple hammer variation.

This is just my take on it

It is not uncommon for my hammer to have heads melt away yet the surrounding heads all are healthy there is no rhyme or reason to it where I'll have a swath of hammers melt away but the rest are healthy. Hammer skeletons are relatively fragile and are easy to break yet the coral is a relatively hardy species and grows relatively fast

As to your situation as others have stated don't make huge changes just to save one coral as it may adversely affect other coral. In my experience if the hammer heads starts to melt away there is little you can do to save that head just focus on saving the surviving heads

Hammers at least in my tank like strong light, low end of moderate flow and likes being high up on the rocks

[604reefer]

I ended up tossing it last night. I used my 30x loupe to exam it, but saw nothing. Sucks because it was expensive and, of course, the freebie green/green hammer that came with it is thriving lol, but such is life!

I think it might have been damaged when I got it or during shipping as it never quite seemed happy in my tank and my other euphyllia are all SO happy , aussie type included!

[DKoKoMan]

Could be a one off for sure. Sucks for the loss, but post some photos of your hammer domination at some point