Hammer Coral Gaping Mouth/Filaments Every Night

george9

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Hello everyone! I will start but giving the backstory about this coral:

My tank has been set up and running since Nov. 2021. Between November and May things were pretty stable in terms of water parameters but I was running nutrients WAY too low and this triggered a dino outbreak at the end of May. The dino outbreak lasted from end of May-end of July and ended with a cyano and hair algae outbreak which I’ve gotten controlled with water changes and a army of snails. I had this hammer on the sandbed and it was growing fast and looking fantastic january - may. I decided to move it to a lower rock right before the dino outbreak and it stayed here from May-July during which it did not grow and its tentacles changed shape a bit to look more like a torch. I attributed this to the fluctuations in nutrients and figured it would begin growing again once things got stable.

The last few weeks I’ve finally gotten my parameters (mostly nutrients) stable after about 2 months of dosing phosphate. During that time, the phosphate concentrations were all over the place which over time so could see started causing some stress most notable with SPS which is to be expected. I noticed about 2 weeks ago this hammer wasn’t as puffy and just looked “sad.” it wasn’t retracted but it just wasn’t it’s same puffy self. It then showed a tiny bit of recession on the skeleton and that’s when I figured it probably wasn’t in a good spot that it was completely happy in since it also hadn’t been growing.

About a week ago I moved it to the sandbed back in it’s happy spot and did two iodine dips spaced 3 days apart. No flatworms came off or are visible and the hammer still puffs up during the day and appears mostly normal. The only thing is on one of its heads, the mouth is gaping and at night it’s filaments will come out like it’s trying to attack something. During the day, the mouth just appears “loose” and the filaments poke out a tiny bit but it’s much less noticeable than at night.

I am not sure if it just needs a second to relax without me fussing with it, or if it’s on its way out. I don’t see any new tissue recession beyond what I was a couple weeks ago. This is my only upset coral at the moment - all of the others have really perked up and have resumed growth after I got the dinos/algae taken care of and stable parameters which is why I think I just need to let it be. But, it has been over a week of it with a gaping mouth on 1 head so I am worried it’s not happy about something.

parameters:

salinity - 1.025

temp- 78-79

mg- 1350

calcium - 420

kh - 9.0

phos- .1

nítrate - 10ppm

pH - 7.8-8.0



I’ve attached a few pics. The first couple are the coral when the lights are off and you can clearly see it’s loose/gaping mouth and filaments. The last 2 pics are during the day when it looks okay.
Has anyone every experienced this? Im not sure what’s ticking this guy off.

Thanks for any input you guys have!

6FDA86CE-17E2-4D8D-AF5E-19DEE42249FA.jpeg 9EDE1710-856D-415F-8706-48B1285C694A.jpeg 5A1CA034-F985-4E52-8DB7-16177000D763.jpeg 1219B39B-0A7A-4327-BB7E-C07903601023.jpeg 3EDD7FD9-A4C0-45C4-96F9-76E1198BC59B.jpeg
 

SPR1968

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I can’t answer with the question but I can bump the thread to see if we can get you some help
 
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george9

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I can’t answer with the question but I can bump the thread to see if we can get you some help
Appreciate it! not too worried at the moment as its seemingly holding stable, opening and puffy during the day, and not getting worse. it still lets the filaments out at night though. Focusing on stability and good water quality and not fussing with it too much.

Maybe someone who has seen something similar will chime in eventually but at least it’s not quickly dying!!
 

lucyretz

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So I'm going to chime in here, but let me preface by saying that i am in no way an expert, I've kept euphyllia corals almost exclusively for many years but i still struggle with them often. however, here's my take.

I simply think this coral is really hungry. gaping mouth and releasing filaments at night screams that to me. its like the coral is doing all it can to obtain food from the water column. I personally would spot feed it LPS pellets or mysis and reef roids, something hearty but not too much. turn your flow off, let it gently settle over the coral and give it a good 15 minutes to eat.

although its not often i see filaments in euphyllia, i do have a basketball sized walling colony that releases them when i spot feed.
 
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george9

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So I'm going to chime in here, but let me preface by saying that i am in no way an expert, I've kept euphyllia corals almost exclusively for many years but i still struggle with them often. however, here's my take.

I simply think this coral is really hungry. gaping mouth and releasing filaments at night screams that to me. its like the coral is doing all it can to obtain food from the water column. I personally would spot feed it LPS pellets or mysis and reef roids, something hearty but not too much. turn your flow off, let it gently settle over the coral and give it a good 15 minutes to eat.

although its not often i see filaments in euphyllia, i do have a basketball sized walling colony that releases them when i spot feed.
I thought this at first and had been feeding it probably too much and it still had a gaping mouth and let out its filaments at night. I noticed it was almost slightly worse on nights after I would feed as well. I cut back on feeding this week just to avoid a nutrient spike but plan on giving it a good feeding tonight.
Maybe it’s just the picture angle but it looks like there is a strong current going from left to right , it’s pushed over in every pic.

There is a slight current over it, and it has always been slightly lopsided. That is the spot it had been in when it was growing FAST and looking really happy so I don’t think it should be a problem now

Here’s a pic from april for example in the same location and flow looking way happier than it does now
 

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george9

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Here’s an update on how the hammer looks when the lights are coming on and the filaments retract. Its mouth has been closed but it stays really “puffy” and fat looking, it’s hard to explain. Fed it well last night. The second head looks totally normal on the right. Could this head be trying to split?

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EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal

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I agree with the comment about the flow. Maybe turning the frag 90 degrees will allow that head to get a gentler flow pattern and allow it to "compose itself", so to speak. I believe you when you say it's in the same spot it was doing well in before, but it's been through some stress and may need a little change.

Good luck! :)
 
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george9

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I agree with the comment about the flow. Maybe turning the frag 90 degrees will allow that head to get a gentler flow pattern and allow it to "compose itself", so to speak. I believe you when you say it's in the same spot it was doing well in before, but it's been through some stress and may need a little change.

Good luck! :)
Good idea! I will try turning it when I am home tonight and see if that helps it. Didn’t really think of that myself
 
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george9

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Thought I’d post a quick update. The hammer looks pretty good during the day, it’s opening up wider and just appears “happier.” I see no more filaments at night or a gaping mouth BUT I did see a little more tissue recession this week. I did another iodine dip because I am not sure what else to do! It was ticked for a few hours after the dip but today it’s looking pretty good.0


The visual presentation is miles better than what it was weeks ago when the mouth was gaping, but the tissue recession tells me it might still be ticked about something. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ all of my other corals are growing like crazy
 

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george9

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And it’s been about a month so I will update this for anyone who stumbles on this thread in the future.

I ended up moving the hammer about a month ago to an area of more even and lower flow and its flesh is looking healthy and I cannot see any of its mouths anymore at all - gaping or not! Which is a great sign. The tentacles are becoming more “hammer” shaped like they used to be and overall I think this guy is on the up and up and likely out of the woods I am thinking

I think the Iodine dips helped but I noticed significant and fast improvement when I added a couple drops of aminos every couple days for about a week. I’ve since stopped this out of fear of algae/dinos. Amino dosing is what triggered a dino outbreak so I am very weary of them but they seemed to have helped!

Anyways, I think this is where I will let this thread die unless something significant happens. thanks for your help everyone
 

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