Hammer Coral Melting?

[HWY61]

Of course it happened while I’m out of town...

Got this picture from my grandmother telling me my head of lettuce is rotting. I won’t be back home until March and she’s going by to feed/top off.

I don’t trust her to test my tank but my most recent results were:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Calcium: 450
Alk: 8
Phos: .4

These probably aren’t that useful since it doesn’t tell us if something spiked, but it’s a start.

I got her to FaceTime me and everything else looks healthy. The fish are active, fatter than I left them but healthy. My other corals and BTA are wide-opened.

I’ve had this coral for about a month and it’s been big and happy looking since the day after I put it in. The only issue I’ve ever had was when one of my chromis decided to try and use it as a vending machine a few weeks back.

 

[HWY61]

Here’s another angle

 

[KrisReef]

I hope the disease stays with just this one coral. If you have other hammers, torch, bubble, or frogspawn it might be prudent to pull this one to reduce potential spread to the others?

Sorry about the situation; "The lettuce is rotting."

Edit:
But she does take good photos!

The second one doesn't look all that bad. I suspect the fish are loving this coral too much

 

[homer1475]

Looks fine to me.

Sometimes heads shrink, then puff right backup. There is still tissue connected to the base in that spot, so the head isn't receding.

 

[homer1475]

Doesn't look like BJD at all to me. I see no brown slime. Some tentacles have shrunk, but it looks overall healthy.

 

[HWY61]

I hope the disease stays with just this one coral. If you have other hammers, torch, bubble, or frogspawn it might be prudent to pull this one to reduce potential spread to the others?

Sorry about the situation; "The lettuce is rotting."

Edit:
But she does take good photos!

The second one doesn't look all that bad. I suspect the fish are loving this coral too much

You know, maybe I’m being quick here but I think I’ve come up with a diagnosis.

clownfish

I’ll keep checking in on it and update.

 

[HWY61]

So I just now received this photo. To me it looks like that white area grew, or is that just the skeleton?

No bailout yet, fingers crossed this was the work of a brain dead snail

 

[HWY61]

So I just now received this photo. To me it looks like that white area grew, or is that just the skeleton?

No bailout yet, fingers crossed this was the work of a brain dead snail

Update: She went and inspected the polyps. The white stuff seems to be burst ones I think? Like the fish were nipping them.

 

[HWY61]

Good news. My hammer has a dreaded parasite...

A pair of chromis.

Things are looking better now and I’ll separate the fish when I get home. I think this is my third false alarm in the hobby, luckily I don’t think I’ve ever had an actual issue.