Hammer growth or signs of trouble?

[Ralph Ritoch]

After feeding my Hammer today it expanded and I see two heads just hanging off of the side of the coral which have no shell.

Is this normal?
Are they new heads?
Did I overfeed?
Does this mean my tank doesn't have enough calcium for them to build new shells?

I have only had this hammer for 5 days and it is my first hammer coral so I really don't know what I'm looking at!

 

[James M]

Can you post a pic ? Not sure what you mean by they are hanging off with no shell

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Can you post a pic ? Not sure what you mean by they are hanging off with no shell

Done. I edited my post to include an image. It is hard to see but the 2 heads are just hanging off the side without a shell under it.

 

[flexiblewater]

Could be polyp bailout hard to tell by the pic tho

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Could be polyp bailout hard to tell by the pic tho

It seems like a bailout but its connected to other heads. I'm not really sure where one polyp ends and another begins.

(edit) The best way I could describe it is that the coral expanded when it was feed and these two heads were pushed out of the structure.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Whatever happened, it is over now. The clownfish tried to steal food from the hammer and the hammer retracted. When it retracted the head was pulled back into the structure.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

After the hammer expanded again, the two heads are still floating off the end as in this picture. Even the owner of the fish store I bought it from doesn't know.

 

[flexiblewater]

If those heads are not attracted to the skeleton they will soon die unfortunately. This phenomenon generally occurs due to bad water quality or lighting. To save the rest of the colony you may want to address any of those types of issues.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

If those heads are not attracted to the skeleton they will soon die unfortunately. This phenomenon generally occurs due to bad water quality or lighting. To save the rest of the colony you may want to address any of those types of issues.

I have 165W dimmable light that is a bit too close to the water. Either way I've only had this coral for nearly a week, this problem pre-dates this tank. I was thinking of dosing calcium but the fish store said Hammer's don't need it. I only have the API test kit so I can't test for calcium, alkalinity, or magnesium but the water is NSW so the parameters should be ideal for these corals which were likely collected in similar ocean water.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Hi Ralph.

I wouldn’t panic. It looks like they just responded to the food. If you want post you parameters for us to look at

Edit, just read they are still hanging. A pix would help and the numbers you do have kits for

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Hi Ralph.

I wouldn’t panic. It looks like they just responded to the food. If you want post you parameters for us to look at

Edit, just read they are still hanging. A pix would help and the numbers you do have kits for

0.25 PPM Ammonia (API / false positive)
0 Nitrite
40 ppm nitrate
1.024 salinity
8.3 PH (Lowered today from 8.4)

No tests for the big coral stats, but I do 10% water change with ocean water every week so the stats of the tank, other than that nitrate which won't go down, is basically the same as the ocean.

 

[samnaz]

Can you get a close up pic of the dangling heads? Hopefully it’s not sloughing off tissue...

 

[Mykawl]

Where are you getting this sea water from and are you sure your salinity is 1.024? Have the LFS double check that, this happened to all my corals but salinity was 1.040 cause I didn’t have the right refractometer : P

Sorry can’t tell from pic if you have other corals in the tank or not, else nvm lol.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Where are you getting this sea water from and are you sure your salinity is 1.024? Have the LFS double check that, this happened to all my corals but salinity was 1.040 cause I didn’t have the right refractometer : P

Sorry can’t tell from pic if you have other corals in the tank or not, else nvm lol.

2 flowerpot corals and now two zoanthids (starfish fragged it). I plan on buying a refratomter but we've been having problems with the order. I have been very busy for the past 2 weeks and totally forgot. I have been using a hydrometer.

 

[Ralph Ritoch]

Another notable feature of this coral is that 5 heads are missing, 3 on one side, two on the other. It was this way when I bought it. I don't know why it grew in this way and didn't fill the empty tubes.

 

[ScottR]

If you’re having salinity swings, expect the hammer to start bailing out. Have you noticed any tentacles getting long, thin and stringy?

 

[FugeTown]

They told you it doesn’t need calcium? That’s definitely not true buddy.

 

[DMG Reef]

Your hammer coral looks very bleached. That's probably why the polyps are bailing out - too much light and possibly not enough nutrients. You said your light is too close to the waterline. Is it adjustable/dimmable? If not, you could try moving the coral into a corner where it's not getting direct light.

 

[ScottR]

They told you it doesn’t need calcium? That’s definitely not true buddy.

I think he meant the LFS said he doesn’t need to dose calcium. And he shouldn’t unless he’s testing for it. But of course, hammers need it. And I’m sure Ca isn’t the reason for this.

 

[ScottR]

Your hammer coral looks very bleached. That's probably why the polyps are bailing out - too much light and possibly not enough nutrients. You said your light is too close to the waterline. Is it adjustable/dimmable? If not, you could try moving the coral into a corner where it's not getting direct light.

I thought that at first too but lighting and pics can look totally different than what you see in person. You can see from the second pic there is more color. Some of the pink euphyllia have more of a pinkish/whitish color and white lights hide their true color. Some even have see-through tentacles.