How to handle dead heads on hammer

[avocadoman]

I have a hammer that I've had for almost two years now. Over the summer a (now gone) emerald crab kept nipping at some of the lower hanging polyps and now it has a few dead heads.

How do I handle this situation? When I got it, I removed the frag from the plug and epoxied it directly to the rock. Should I try to trim back the dead portions? Take the whole thing off and frag the living part?

Here's a picture of it in the morning while some of the polyps are still retracted so you can see the skeleton better.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I just leave them. The coral will continue to grow, and eventually those dead heads will not be noticeable.

 

[get-salty]

I leave mine alone if its just a head, though you can use a bone cutter and cut the dead part off.
however, you'll have to look and see if the section is old. Cutting any part of an older stony coral can cause a split that could run all the way to the good part and potentially splitting and killing the entire coral.

If you want to cut it off, start at the very tip "head" of the dead part. That way if it splits, itll split to a certain degree and not all the way through.

Hope that helps.

 

[Reeferbadness]

I have the same thing in my tank on a 20 or so head bi-color hammer - one of my fish (Australian Stripey) nips at them some time and i lost 3 or 4 heads. I just keep them. Eventually, i'll cut up the whole colony and start over and sell/trade some of the other heads to local reefers.