Shrimp ate hammer coral

[Max H.]

My shrimp ate a head of my new hammer coral and i was wondering if it would recover. The head is closed up and changed colors

 

[Lost in the Sauce]

My shrimp ate a head of my new hammer coral and i was wondering if it would recover. The head is closed up and changed colors

I'm hoping it only ate a few tentacles, not whole heads..

The hammer is stressed and should recover but if your shrimp has learned to start eating that, time for the shrimp to go. It probably won't stop.

 

[Max H.]

I'm hoping it only ate a few tentacles, not whole heads..

The hammer is stressed and should recover but if your shrimp has learned to start eating that, time for the shrimp to go. It probably won't stop.

It ate about half of the head

 

[jeffp1]

I recently had a peppermint eat a head of my frogspawn. Had to remove the shrimp to stop it from eating others. Mine didn't recover.

 

[Uncle99]

If it totally retracted then yup, it will be back.
If it was eaten, I would doubt that.
They sometimes are just picking and upsetting the polyp, on occasion maybe damage.
It can be a bit hard to target feed corals with shrimps as they love to steal.

 

[KrisReef]

My shrimp ate a head of my new hammer coral and i was wondering if it would recover. The head is closed up and changed colors

The shrimp will recover but the coral will not.

 

[Brewski262]

What type of shrimp was it? I'm currently trying to diagnose an issue with a recently added gold stem hammer. I thought a near by "frammer" stung it or a larger hammer did something to it that is also close by..

I also added a peppermint shrimp to the tank and then a few days later noticed the recently added smaller gold stem hammer was shrunk In size and the middle tentacles were all the way sucked in.

Still not sure what happened, could potentially be the shrimp I guess.

 

[rhostam]

The shrimp can learn that by irritating corals they can get them to regurgitate food. I.e. PEZ dispenser.

Also, shrimp will eat dying tissue and seen to generally leave healthy tissue alone.

Mine did both activities, until they messed with the wrong corals. My cynarina and catalaphyllia managed to each catch a “peppermint“ shrimp.

I now ensure that my tank (and shrimp) get plenty of food to eat and the poking and pressing are a thing of the past. Watching the corals eat their buddies may have a part to do with it, too.

Good luck!