Upset about my branching hammer coral

[JT101]

I've had ONE greenish hammer coral for over a year. You couldn't kill this thing with a bomb. From the moment I put it in my tank it bloomed and has been a full "bouquet" ever since.

About a month ago my wife bought me a different kind of hammer coral. Whereas the first one has sort of semi-circular "hammers", this one has hammers that look almost like a perfect T. Anyway, it was pretty full when she put it in the tank (when I came home she surprised me with it ) and started to slowly get better over the course of a week or so. Then within the last week it started to look more deflated. I noticed one day that several tentacles were missing and the skeleton "blades" were showing. It was in an area of relatively higher flow so I turned down my Vortec a little.

A few days later it looked worse

Today when I got home from work half of it was gone! Several blades were showing.

The OTHER one was, as usual, full of life and VERY full. I shut the lights off.

A few minutes ago I turned the light on, and to my horror my yellow tang was NIPPING at the "gooey" part that was left of the dying coral! I guess he found it a delicacy!

Now, here's the big question:

Could it be that my yellow tang was nipping at this thing all along at night, and finally stressed it enough where it began to die, exposing more of its "guts" which caused the tang to dine on it even more,

OR

Is the tang only nipping at it now because it's getting gooey because it's dying from other causes?

I'm really stressed out now because I seem to have NO luck with any coral that has a ribbed-type skeleton like this one and brains. The other hammer coral is essentially a stub with a narrow opening, and the polyps extend out from it, whereas the new one has these long ribs. Is there a connection? Could it be a flow-related injury issue? HELP!!!!

Thanks
John

 

[Dre]

Here is your answer...

[PDF OVERLAY][/PDF OVERLAY]Is the tang only nipping at it now because it's getting gooey because it's dying from other causes?[PDF OVERLAY][/PDF OVERLAY]

 

[Dre]

And here is your answer. Too much flow as you now know will kill them.

[PDF OVERLAY][/PDF OVERLAY] Could it be a flow-related injury issue? [PDF OVERLAY][/PDF OVERLAY]

 

[JT101]

Ahhhhh....NOW I see the connection - thanks!!!

The polyps on the dying coral are banging against the "blades" (i.e., skeleton) and causing injury and separation from the skeleton.

The other one - being a stub with a narrow opening - doesn't have this problem.

:duh:

Why the hell didn't I think about this?

Is there any hope for this? I moved it close to the other hammer, not so close that the other one's polyps will touch it but close enough to take advantage of the random gentle flow over there. Will it come back? What else can I do for it to help it along?

 

[Dre]

It's hard to say without pics but you can do a 20% water change...

 

[JT101]

It's hard to say without pics but you can do a 20% water change...

Already made a new batch in anticipation of that, will do the change tomorrow.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

the second hammer you described sounds like a "wall" type. imagine the wall type being a giant head of the branching ones. with the branching type, many times if one of the heads dies, the remaining heads would still do just fine. the wall however, if it doesn't recover from injury/infection, you would lose the whole thing. it is more prone to injury and subsequently infection that may kill it. the tissue may have been injured by its own skeleton either by too strong of a flow or physically handling it. definitely move it to a gentler flow area and watch for infections.

and if you see this brown jelly looking mush, as a last resort, i would try to cut out the bad section (outside the tank)....also cut a little into the "good" section and don't let the brown jelly looking substance touches any other good area or the other hammer. it's suppose to be infectious. perhaps dipped it in lugol, rinse and put back in a gentle flow area. do a water change and leave it alone but watch it closely. gl i hope it recovers.

 

[JT101]

Thanks for all the advice folks.

Unfortunately my pesky yellow tang - which, out of the year or so I've had him I have NEVER seen him nip at anything other than the LR - continues to take a bite now and then from this dying coral. I fear this is a downward death spiral.

As a last resort, can I put the hammer coral in my refugium? It only has 18W of 10,000k lighting. Maybe it can heal there?