Hammer Coral Trouble — receding/shrinking

[SaltWaterTerp]

I’ve had this hammer for 6 months. For about the past 2 weeks, it’s not been looking good.

Here is a pic from tonight (I will try to update with a daytime pic):

It was thriving, and I really mean thriving — full and growing and happy. Then, I added a new hammer (the one on right in pic), and all was well for a few weeks, but now this.

Parameters are all good, just checked this weekend. So, I think it might be one of the following:

1) The other hammer being too close (I thought hammers could be close, but now I see sometimes they can be unhappy); or
2) my stock lighting in the LED Biocube 16 needs an upgrade.

Any thoughts?

Should I move it? Or move the other one? They are glued down, but I hopefully can pry it off without damage — they were super easy to take off the frag.

 

[Evan28395950]

Honestly it should be enough light for a basic coral like that. I would try moving one to a different spot first to see if it helps.

 

[VB313]

I’ve had this hammer for 6 months. For about the past 2 weeks, it’s not been looking good.

Here is a pic from tonight (I will try to update with a daytime pic):

It was thriving, and I really mean thriving — full and growing and happy. Then, I added a new hammer (the one on right in pic), and all was well for a few weeks, but now this.

Parameters are all good, just checked this weekend. So, I think it might be one of the following:

1) The other hammer being too close (I thought hammers could be close, but now I see sometimes they can be unhappy); or
2) my stock lighting in the LED Biocube 16 needs an upgrade.

Any thoughts?

Should I move it? Or move the other one? They are glued down, but I hopefully can pry it off without damage — they were super easy to take off the frag.

Where is it placed in the tank I keep a nice hammer in my biocube 32 about 4 inches off the sandbed with stock lights

 

[SaltWaterTerp]

Where is it placed in the tank I keep a nice hammer in my biocube 32 about 4 inches off the sandbed with stock lights

It’s closer to the top — but it was really thriving up there for months. I think I’m gonna try to move it down though, just to get it away from the other hammer.

Man, I would hate to lose this coral — it was one of my faves until it started giving me issues

 

[VB313]

Sounds like a good plan

 

[SaltWaterTerp]

I moved him. I will update in a few days or so. Hopefully, it was just coral warfare between the 2 hammers, and moving one solves the problem.

 

[Dabcrusher]

I have 5 different color hammers in my hammer garden and they are always cool with each other.i did think they stung each other

 

[samnaz]

I’ve never heard of hammer on hammer warfare. I didn’t think that was even possible. Hm...

 

[SaltWaterTerp]

I’ve never heard of hammer on hammer warfare. I didn’t think that was even possible. Hm...

I did some searching on R2R and saw some posts about hammers not getting along with other hammers -- some have said they think they have seen this. These observations can still be anecdotal, for sure -- but, in my case, I think it would be weird that all of a sudden the hammer started acting strange after really thriving. But, who knows? Hopefully, moving helps with whatever the issue was.