Deflating/shriveling hammer?

[MikeDesjean]

Hi all, I’m just wondering if anyone could help me figure out what’s happening with my hammer. I’ve had it for about 6-8 weeks now and all has been going good with it. Has really been growing exceptionally well. It just recently finished its split into two heads. However I just noticed about 20 minutes ago that it suddenly has started shriveling up/deflating.

My tank setup is a WaterBox 20g cube AIO.
paramaters are:
Am-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-5
Phos- 0-.25 ( api so more than 0 less than .25)
Ph- api 8-8.2
Temp-78.4
Kh- 8.5-9
Cal- 460
Also running chemi-clean elite I think, the one with GFO.
curious if anyone has any ideas?

I’ve attached some pictures, the first is the hammer that I’m worried about that appears to be shriveling. The second photo is my other hammer which is about 8-12” away from the deflated one and appears to be fine.The last picture is a full tank shot, notice the deflated one in the front left corner. All the photos were taken within 5 minutes of each other.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

So, it's just been like that for a short while? Corals can retract for many different reasons, most are benign. If it does not go back to its previous state after a day, check to see if there are any pests, if an invert is bothering it, etc.
Hopefully it's just a normal variation.

 

[MikeDesjean]

Thanks, I hope so too. I fell like you could be right. I did I a 2.5 g water change quick before I had to leave the house for a little bit. So fingers crossed it looks better when lights come back on tomorrow.

 

[Lavey29]

Parameters, lights or flow. Your numbers appear good but didn't see salinity? How old is the tank? What are you doing for lights and flow? Par?

 

[MikeDesjean]

Sorry meant to put salinity, it’s 1.026. Light is AI prime set to brs recommended setting for my tank size. So at that spot it’s roughly 90 par.

tank is coming on 3 months old. This was one of my first corals and I have had it close to 2 months. Guy cut it off the branch when I bought it from him and I glued it to plug. It has been dipped in both iodine and coral rx when I got it and it has grown a lot in this time frame. Was one head now two.

 

[MikeDesjean]

May have found the culprit? I found my Scarlet hermit on the hammer. Not eating it but as I watched it looked to have put the point of it’s leg through a tentacle and with a few minutes all progress of it returning to full extension is back to where it was.

 

[nomad6]

May have found the culprit? I found my Scarlet hermit on the hammer. Not eating it but as I watched it looked to have put the point of it’s leg through a tentacle and with a few minutes all progress of it returning to full extension is back to where it was.

Fragbox corals swears by higher mg >1400 and in their videos they show results I’m about to up my mg, tests kit and mg in cart. Look them up on YouTube. Hope this helps

 

[prettyhappyreef]

I am having the exact same problem, with the EXACT SAME CORAL. I mean that the hammer looks identical to yours. My other hammers are doing fine.

I haven’t seen anything hurting the coral yet, but really want to figure it out.

 

[MikeDesjean]

I am having the exact same problem, with the EXACT SAME CORAL. I mean that the hammer looks identical to yours. My other hammers are doing fine.

I haven’t seen anything hurting the coral yet, but really want to figure it out.

I would not worry. Mine took a few days but came back and is doing great. I think it was just mad about something. It hasn’t really don’t it since. My other hammer did the same thing for a few hours one or twice, but was fully open and healthy shortly after.

The hammer that I originally posted about is for sure my most fussy coral about flow and once it settled into its new spot with low flow it’s seems very happy.

I have it in the front left corner on the bottom and it’s light flow. When I got it the lfs cut it right off the branch and gave it to me that way so I figure it was maybe still healing maybe, plus it was in the process of splitting. So maybe it was a combo of the 2. Other wise it is doing well and starting to split again.

hope this helps and your fix was as easy as mine.