Is this polyp bailout on my Hammer?

[tombudster]

This is my first coral loss, so I'm trying to figure out exactly what this is so I can identify it sooner.

This poor, beautiful Holy Grail Hammer has been sitting on my sand bed in a riser plug and my terrorist hermit crab has been knocking it over into the sand for the last few days. Last night I was gone for 30 minutes and my wife told me that the hermit crab dragged this thing down into the sand again. There was no damage or polyps falling off last night, but today I look at the coral and it looks like this... with chunks just sort of falling off.

Everything else in the tank is healthy, my other torches, hammers, and gonis are all good, but this guy is going through it.

Is this bailout? Is there anything I can do to save this?

 

[Timfish]

What you're seeing is the polyps splitting and growing seperate branches. That being said some of the skeleton looks a bit unusual where the split is occuring. You certainly can save it (it would help to fix it so it's not getting knocked over). It would help if you could post your water parameters and maintenance regimen.

 

[Bucrob]

It is definitely in the midst of splitting into 3 separate heads it looks like but yeah some of it is really receded, more than it should be.

 

[Bucrob]

It is definitely in the midst of splitting into 3 separate heads it looks like but yeah some of it is really receded, more than it should be.

 

[tombudster]

What you're seeing is the polyps splitting and growing seperate branches. That being said some of the skeleton looks a bit unusual where the split is occuring. You certainly can save it (it would help to fix it so it's not getting knocked over). It would help if you could post your water parameters and maintenance regimen.

It is definitely in the midst of splitting into 3 separate heads it looks like but yeah some of it is really receded, more than it should be.

It is officially dead. I woke up this morning to all the polyps off the coral and just the bare skeleton remaining. Is there anything I can do? Should I go full chop shop and glue the free floating polyps back onto the skeleton in hopes that it reattaches at some point?

Water is totally perfect -
Salinity - 1.024
Temp - 78
PH - 8.1
Alk - 8.1
Nitrate - 8
Phosphate - .1
Calcium - 400
Mag - 1380

I have banished the hermit crab who perpetrated this to a new nano tank I've been setting up. You don't kill a $100 coral without repercussions lol. Also a good lesson learned to wait to buy new coral until my GHA issue is fixed and I can actually get the coral stuck to the rock.

 

[ccole]

I’ve had this happen to me before as well, and it happens more often to corals that sit on the sand bed and get knocked over regularly.

I suspect that the sand causes small cuts that can introduce infection when the corals fall. I had much better luck with euphyllia when I started gluing it in place and not moving it after.

 

[tombudster]

I’ve had this happen to me before as well, and it happens more often to corals that sit on the sand bed and get knocked over regularly.

I suspect that the sand causes small cuts that can introduce infection when the corals fall. I had much better luck with euphyllia when I started gluing it in place and not moving it after.

So this same coral got knocked over about a week ago and I took it out and dipped it in revive to sort of clean up whatever might be on it and any cuts like you said. It was looking better and sort of recovering a bit, but the fall the other night was too much for it.

I am understanding why people sort of don't like hermit crabs in their reef tanks and prefer to do snails only. Even my conch is more gentle than some of the larger hermit crabs when they start to get in a feisty mood.

 

[Privateye]

I had a hammer bail-out a couple of polyps once. They just looked like regular polyps, but sitting on the bottom without any skeleton. I just left them like that, and one of them eventually grew a skeleton from the flesh. If you have polyps like that (still look good, but detached) then keeping them undisturbed in a low-flow environment could allow them to recover.

 

[Timfish]

Perssonally I wouldn't blame the hermit at all. I have the large thin strip hemits found along the gulf coast in all my systems. They're excellent scavengers and algae eaters and very clumsy and have no regard for corals traipsing across them looking for food. If they're doing any damage I'm not seeing it.