New hammer not doing so hot

[noobreefer2]

Hi, recently I picked up a few corals from the Tidal Gardens spring live sale, and all of the corals arrived alive, but the hammer had a few polyps coming off of it in the bag. I temperature acclimated them for 30 minutes, and then dipped them in Coral RX, and Bayer. I put the three corals in the tank about an inch apart from each other in 25 PAR light, and they all started opening up. The next day I decided to move the hammer to a different location so that all of the corals would not be so close, I managed to get a picture of the hammer after I moved it (it looks fine):

I waited another day and then moved it to a rock that has 100 PAR at most. The next morning at least half of the skeleton was exposed, and I had a few thoughts:
-The hammer bailed out because the light was too high (I think unlikely), my peppermint shrimp ate part of it, it was too stressed out already because I was moving it to mutch.
-The hammer was already bailing out in shipping, (there were some polyps in the bag)
-I think that I am having a problem with my magnesium, I raised it to 1370 on Monday, and now it's at 1280

So, if there is any hope left please let me know, as of right now no polys are falling/coming off of the hammer Here is some information:

Dkh: 9
Ca: 440
Mag: 1280 (right now)
Nitrates: 2
Ph: 8.2-8.3

What I saw on tidal gardens:

Hammer exposed:

Polyp on sand:

If there is nothing that I can do then please let me know, Thank you in advance.

 

[noobreefer2]

Btw, it looked like it bailed overnight

 

[noobreefer2]

bump

 

[noobreefer2]

How long do polyp bailouts usually last? There are the same amount of polyps on the coral now as yesterday. I tried feeding it phytoplankton, but I don't think it did much. If algae start growing on the old skeleton should I do a Hydrogen peroxide dip? Will the polyps grow back? Is there nothing that I can do? Thanks.

 

[DarthSimon]

I would give that coral a dip in Iodine, and then let it recover in a low flow and lower light area.

 

[noobreefer2]

I would give that coral a dip in Iodine, and then let it recover in a low flow and lower light area.

Hi, sorry for the delayed response I have some CVS iodine, it is 2% Iodine, 2.4% Sodium Iodine, and 47% alcohol, Im not sure if alcohol is safe on corals but here is the link: https://www.cvs.com/shop/cvs-health...441&cgaa=QWxsb3dHb29nbGVUb0FjY2Vzc0NWU1BhZ2Vz

And I have coral RX, what do you think I should do? I can go pick up a real iodine dip tomorrow at my LFS, or use CoralRX, or use the CVS stuff. Do you think that I need to dip again, it might stress it out. I could move it to lower light and flow for now, or would that just agitate it?

Thanks for your help.

 

[noobreefer2]

Also just a quick question, what do you keep your magnesium at?

 

[noobreefer2]

What iodine dip should I use? How long?

 

[Shirak]

Looks severely retracted but I don't see any sign of infection or bailout. Damaged tentacle in shipping isn't uncommon as the tissue is easily damaged by the sharp ridges around the top of the skeleton. A tentacle piece floating around the aquarium is either from something ripping one off or the base of the coral dying and decomposing. So my guess is the peppermint shrimp which are quite capable of yanking Euphyllia tentacles off and eating them.

If it were bailout there would be just an empty white skeleton or if it were in the process of bailing a portion of the whole polyp would be flapping in the current.

Looks severely aggravated, probably from trying to adjust and the shrimp pulling pieces off.

Leave the coral be. 100 par is fine and your parameters are ok, yes Mg can go up a bit but it won't cause what you have here in a couple days time. I would remove the peppermint shrimp and put in the sump or something if you can. Or at least watch it carefully after lights out.

 

[noobreefer2]

Looks severely retracted but I don't see any sign of infection or bailout. Damaged tentacle in shipping isn't uncommon as the tissue is easily damaged by the sharp ridges around the top of the skeleton. A tentacle piece floating around the aquarium is either from something ripping one off or the base of the coral dying and decomposing. So my guess is the peppermint shrimp which are quite capable of yanking Euphyllia tentacles off and eating them.

If it were bailout there would be just an empty white skeleton or if it were in the process of bailing a portion of the whole polyp would be flapping in the current.

Looks severely aggravated, probably from trying to adjust and the shrimp pulling pieces off.

Leave the coral be. 100 par is fine and your parameters are ok, yes Mg can go up a bit but it won't cause what you have here in a couple days time. I would remove the peppermint shrimp and put in the sump or something if you can. Or at least watch it carefully after lights out.

Thank you! Would the cleaner shrimp bother it? I wonder why peppermint shrimp do it.

 

[rhostam]

Thank you! Would the cleaner shrimp bother it? I wonder why peppermint shrimp do it.

I had peppermint shrimp that harassed a few corals. There were two scenarios:

1. An acan that didn’t do too well from shipping. The parts that didn’t look spiffy were eaten by the shrimp. The healthy portions were left alone.

2. I over fed my duncans. I didn’t know then that they are like my corgi and will keep stuffing their mouths. The problem is that they also poop from the same orifice. The shrimp figured out they could irritate the duncans and the duncans would expel the food like a Pez dispenser and retract. I stopped over feeding and the shrimp leave them alone now.

In your case, the hammer was probably just injured and the polyps that weren’t doing so well became food. If you suspect foul play I’d certainly monitor them to be sure. Pop in at night and apply gentle lighting to the area to see if the shrimp are on/ near.

 

[vetteguy53081]

First- get it off the sand as sand can irritate the euphyllia. Moderate light and water flow and :

Temp 77-79
ph 8.1-8.3
salinity 1.025
nitrate < .4
phos < .04
Ammonia < .03
mG 1300
Alk 8-9
CA 440

 

[Shirak]

Thank you! Would the cleaner shrimp bother it? I wonder why peppermint shrimp do it.

I have never had a problem with cleaner shrimp other than they are major food thieves when you try to feed the coral!

 

[noobreefer2]

Thank you all for your replies! I think that I will put my peppermint shrimp in the sump, move the coral off the sand, Im going to do a water change tomorrow, and I will see where my mag lands. The coral closes up at night, but ill make sure to keep an eye on it. I'll keep you guys posted!

 

[noobreefer2]

I put the peppermint shrimp in the sump, and moved it, and fed it a little and it looks much better.

 

[noobreefer2]

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of updates. The hammer is looking like it has fully recovered, it is healthy and puffy, and there is no noticeable damage on the right side:

When do you think that I can put the peppermint shrimp back? Can I put it back? Thank you all for your help!

 

[Shirak]

Hey everyone, sorry for the lack of updates. The hammer is looking like it has fully recovered, it is healthy and puffy, and there is no noticeable damage on the right side:

When do you think that I can put the peppermint shrimp back? Can I put it back? Thank you all for your help!

Looking much better! I don't really know on the peppermint shrimp. I have never kept one because they sometimes get a taste for coral and will simply eat them when they feel like it.

 

[rhostam]

I would re-home the peppermint shrimp permanently. I've grown tired of them constantly harassing the new corals. I've had two try to harass the new catalaphyllia and cynarina I added to my tank a few weeks ago. The elegance caught one of them the other day and the cynarina cought the second today which I managed to record. I think that is the last of them, I hope. If not, I'll wrangle it up when I next see it and feed it to the other corals for revenge.