Hammer coral issue

Syntax1235 · Jan 21, 2017

I had a filefish in my tank to take care of some aptasia. Once the aiptasia were gone it started nipping at lps, specifically a torch and hammer, both with multiple heads (8-9 each). I removed the filefish but there was significant damage to the torch and it slowly receded until it died several weeks ago. Now my hammer which only had one head nipped has been retracting the polyps on the entire coral for a few weeks now. Any advice?

Tyreef2016 · Jan 21, 2017

If the heads dead I would try and frag them away to stop any spreading to the healthy heads. the rest of it looks fine!

did you see any brown jelly like substance?

Syntax1235 · Jan 21, 2017

Tyreef2016 said:
If the heads dead I would try and frag them away to stop any spreading to the healthy heads. the rest of it looks fine!

did you see any brown jelly like substance?

No Jelly, just a slow decline in PE after the nipping.

Tyreef2016 · Jan 21, 2017

I would check all your parameters and if anything looks off start there.

Normally after an injury they can go downhill pretty fast. A bacterial infection can spread from colony to colony.

if it's not loosing flesh and doesn't have brown jelly I'd just let it be and see if something else is bothering it. But if it's on it's way out I would just remove the 2 heads before you loose another colony.

It looks to me the flesh is still covering the skeleton which is a good sign.

saltyfilmfolks · Jan 21, 2017

Tyreef2016 said:
I would check all your parameters and if anything looks off start there.

Normally after an injury they can go downhill pretty fast. A bacterial infection can spread from colony to colony.

if it's not loosing flesh and doesn't have brown jelly I'd just let it be and see if something else is bothering it. But if it's on it's way out I would just remove the 2 heads before you loose another colony.

It looks to me the flesh is still covering the skeleton which is a good sign.

yes +1
but Id leave it personally

Syntax1235 · Jan 21, 2017

Thanks for the advice.... I'll leave it alone and maybe try to feed it some Cyclopeeze at night.... I actually still have a full packet of it in the freezer!

Christopher Davis · Jan 21, 2017

Tyreef2016 said:
If the heads dead I would try and frag them away to stop any spreading to the healthy heads. the rest of it looks fine!

did you see any brown jelly like substance?

Out of curiosity is there a cause to this? I had a torch do this out of the blue one day and completely die off? On my stable 6 year old tank!

Tyreef2016 · Jan 21, 2017

not that I'm aware of. Not even sure if we discovered what brown jelly actually is? besides an infection?(correct me if I'm wrong)

for me it happened when I hit it by accident cleaning one day. causing some damage to the flesh around the skeleton.
another just as you said, Out of no where. one head then the next and so on. some heads even just bailed out as they call it. meanwhile other Euphillya close by were happy.