Hammer coral developing long thin polyps

[steyely]

Curious if anyone has seen this happen before? Polyps seem to get thin and long and eventually separate from the coral. Heads on the end of the polyps look full and healthy. Not sure if its a kind of repoduction thing or maybe a sign of something bad.
pH 8.3
Ca 400
Alk 9dKH
Phos 0
Nitrates 8-10
Moderate Flow
t5 lighting
Medium position
Thanks in advance!

 

[nova65ss]

They come completely off and float around or just get long and skinny? If they are just stretching and extending that is normal but coming off and detaching probably not.

 

[steyely]

They come completely off and float around. Over the past month it's only happened with two, but there seems to be more exhibiting the same characteristics now.

 

[sqwat]

i had this happen with my frogspawn when he started to split his heads or grow.i dont no why but my frog was healthy and growing and when the heads split or devided he would let some loose and they would land on my fav corals and burn holes right threw them so he had to go.

 

[sqwat]

in the pic those look like sweepers and maype the clown is biting them off my tomatoe clown did that to a torche after it stung him.just a thought

 

[nova65ss]

Weird I have a Frog that started out with 3 head 2 yrs ago and grew to 10 (just fragged it was taking over my tank) and never seen it let go of any polyps?

It does not look like it in the pic but is there another coral near where it is stretching too? My frog will strechh pretty far when my leathers hangs down near it sometimes.

 

[postal254]

A friend of mines hammer did this once and the colony slowly died off sometime afterward.

 

[scapes]

Weird I have a Frog that started out with 3 head 2 yrs ago and grew to 10 (just fragged it was taking over my tank) and never seen it let go of any polyps?.

They don't always do this. I've had one for five years and never seen mine do this

 

[seapug]

Not common but not unheard of. Hammer, torch and frogspawn corals are known to develop long sweeper tentacles that will break off the parent colony and start a new colony if they land and stick to a suitable substrate.

 

[steyely]

Not common but not unheard of. Hammer, torch and frogspawn corals are known to develop long sweeper tentacles that will break off the parent colony and start a new colony if they land and stick to a suitable substrate.

From reading around, that's what I think/hope is most likely happening. I have an elegance, frogspawn, several mushrooms, xenias, and zoas that seem to be doing just fine. Tank has been established for about 7 months (or longer, bought it off craigslist with just sand and LR remainding).

Since it's such a rare opportunity, I wonder if it would be possible to gently separate the tentacles with a razer when they are at their thinnest and glue them to a piece of rock or plug?

in the pic those look like sweepers and maype the clown is biting them off my tomatoe clown did that to a torche after it stung him.just a thought

Haven't noticed the clown bothering it. They host an elegance coral and spend most of their time hanging around it.


Thanks for all the replies!!! :wave:

 

[Reef Bass]

Just to be clear on terminology, it sounds as though the original poster is referring to tentacles when he says polyps?

 

[steyely]

Just to be clear on terminology, it sounds as though the original poster is referring to tentacles when he says polyps?

Yes, probably not the correct term but you are right.

 

[sqwat]

;strange things happen in these closed sysems.he looks healthy.i still wouldnt rule out the clown.this acn happen youre tank and you might never no.it just happened when mine was splitting and when my clown got stung.i had a cleaner shrimp rip the sweepers off of my galaxi to once so you never no.i dont think its polyp bailout though.

 

[seapug]

From reading around, that's what I think/hope is most likely happening. I have an elegance, frogspawn, several mushrooms, xenias, and zoas that seem to be doing just fine. Tank has been established for about 7 months (or longer, bought it off craigslist with just sand and LR remainding).

Since it's such a rare opportunity, I wonder if it would be possible to gently separate the tentacles with a razer when they are at their thinnest and glue them to a piece of rock or plug?

Thanks for all the replies!!! :wave:

you'd be better off to capture a floating tentacle in a clear glass jar with a rock in the bottom. If it settles on the rock there's a good chance it could attach. But you're more likely to start finding tiny baby hammer corals growing like tiny branches off the skeleton just below the polyp base. Those can easily be snapped off and superglued to a plug.

 

[sqwat]

if you have a fuge you can put the tentacle in there and trie to glue it to a plug see what happens it might take a couple of time but would be cool if it worked that guy is good looking and healthy

 

[Lockhartia]

My torch does this. 99% of the time the free floating tenticle lands on an SPS and burns a nice sized hole in it.

Is your hammer in a high flow area? I just messed around with my vortech so the torch gets a lot more flow then it used to, and has since started this annoyance.