It looks like the trunk on this hammer is being eaten away.
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twentyleagues
Valuable Member
well probably not those. Looks like sizable bites taken out of it, So thats why I asked.
Troylee
all about the diy!!!!!
Any beavers in your tank? 
Is your calcium or alk low?
Is your calcium or alk low?
I've seen this sort of thing a few times before (there have a been a couple of instances recently) with a few different Euphyllia species, but nobody seems to be quite sure what causes it.
One person recently found a small mollusk (likely either a chiton or a limpet; I'm leaning toward chiton) on their torch that was having this problem, but it's extremely unlikely this damage was caused by it - others (like in the third link below) have reported worms or worm-like critters doing this damage, but I can't confirm if that's accurate. The damage is noticeably different than flatworm damage, and nothing comes off when dipped (dips don't seem to help at all from what I can find), but it's possible there are worms hidden in/around the coral doing this damage - I just don't know of any species that could or would do this at the moment.
Other speculation includes damage from other inverts (though there's a fair deal of debate as to whether they're the cause of the issue or just opportunistically feeding on something produced by the injured coral); damage from fish; or some sort of parameter issue (most people say issues with Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium - some also include pH, IIRC) causing the skeleton to become super soft/fragile and to break from minor things/be preyed upon or damaged by things that normally wouldn't bother corals. Of those speculated causes, the parameter issue is the only one that seems really plausible to me, as not all of the tanks with this issue have had the same (known) inverts/fish in them.
This has happened to single torches in tanks with multiple torches in them (i.e. one torch is affected while the rest are fine), so it's possible something is damaging these specific torches for some reason, but - if that's the case - I don't know what (creature, disease, etc.) or why. This also has happened in one tank for some people, then stopped when they upgraded/changed tanks.
The one with the mollusk:
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Another one from 15 years ago:
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Now a whole bunch from more recently:
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And one with a frogspawn for good measure:
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One person recently found a small mollusk (likely either a chiton or a limpet; I'm leaning toward chiton) on their torch that was having this problem, but it's extremely unlikely this damage was caused by it - others (like in the third link below) have reported worms or worm-like critters doing this damage, but I can't confirm if that's accurate. The damage is noticeably different than flatworm damage, and nothing comes off when dipped (dips don't seem to help at all from what I can find), but it's possible there are worms hidden in/around the coral doing this damage - I just don't know of any species that could or would do this at the moment.
Other speculation includes damage from other inverts (though there's a fair deal of debate as to whether they're the cause of the issue or just opportunistically feeding on something produced by the injured coral); damage from fish; or some sort of parameter issue (most people say issues with Calcium, Alkalinity, and Magnesium - some also include pH, IIRC) causing the skeleton to become super soft/fragile and to break from minor things/be preyed upon or damaged by things that normally wouldn't bother corals. Of those speculated causes, the parameter issue is the only one that seems really plausible to me, as not all of the tanks with this issue have had the same (known) inverts/fish in them.
This has happened to single torches in tanks with multiple torches in them (i.e. one torch is affected while the rest are fine), so it's possible something is damaging these specific torches for some reason, but - if that's the case - I don't know what (creature, disease, etc.) or why. This also has happened in one tank for some people, then stopped when they upgraded/changed tanks.
The one with the mollusk:
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Something is eating on the stem of my Euphyllia
Hi Hennie/anyone else out there... it looks like something is eating on my Euphyllia coral's stem, as there are a "hole" forming on two parts on the stem of the coral. The head looks fine - it's just on the hard part of the stem. i've noted some bristle worms on the coral (one or two), but I...
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Help. My hammer corals skeleton is getting eaten likeep termites
Hello, My first post. Basically, I have been noticing various euphyillia hammer and torch corals having their skeleton or stem getting, well eaten. It looks like I said, termites had a field day. It seems to happen fast. I've been told parasites like worms are the culprit. Please review the...
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Euphyllia skeleton issue
I have had this euphyllia for about a month and the skeleton is slowly eroding. Any help is greatly appreciated. Parameters 29g tank up since early August with both new rock and rock used in a 9 month old 10g Salinity - 1.025 Temp - 78 Alk - 11 Ph - 8.0-8.1 Little to no nitrate No nitrite No...
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What ate a giant hole through my frogspawn stem!???
This hole looks super fresh and I just noticed this tonight after lights out. This stem had 3 heads on it. 2 of the heads died over the past week. Didnt think much about it as the surviving head is pretty full when open and the other stem on that rock has heads that are full and open in the...
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