Help! Hammerhead just dying

[Hoopsoulja]

Help guys! I bought 2 corals (one octopus coral and one beautiful purple and green hammerhead). Took me 8 hrs total to bring them home (by air) and they werr nicely packed in a styrofoam box. Acclimated for 1 hr. After introducing them to my 40 gal. Tank the octopus frogspawn coral is doing absolutely fine, but the hammerhead never opened up. Then extended a few tentacles and after a few hours it just started to disintegrate. After 24 hrs it has no heads visible on one branch and the other branch is very mushy like. My parameters are good. Nitrates reading zero. SG 1.023. Tank mates are 3 clowns and a cleaner shrimp. What should I do? Please help!

Current state.

When i first added it.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

First of all one is an Octospawn and the other is a Hammer, no octopus or hammerhead.

Your sg is way too low for corals needs to be 1.025-1.026 and need to see all of your parameters to give you any advice. I seriously doubt your nitrates are 0. There are a lot more parameters than just sg and nitrates. Need to know Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, cal, mg, kalk. Also how much flow do you have and what kind of lights?

Something is very bad wrong with your water for it to do this.

 

[Hoopsoulja]

Sorry about the names. It was what the lfs said. My ammonia and nitrites are.zero. and nitrate is showing close to zero as to be considered zero. I dont have a lot of bio load. My octospawn and a previous zoa bunch are thriving. No problems there. Zoas in particular are growing new ones very fast. Flow is moderate and lighting is ati t5ho coral plus and blue plus. Two bulbs. I dont have the kits for calc, mag and alk

 

[homer1475]

If your LFS called them "octopus" and "hammerhead", sorry but you need to find a new LFS.

Agreed your SG is way to low for corals, needs to be 1.025 - 1.026. If your going to keep corals you need to get tests for the big 3 as Dkuhlmann mentioned. Without knowing these parameters, its nearly impossible for us to diagnose what could be happening to the coral, but I would start with slowly raising that SG over the course of a couple days. Just top off with 1.026 instead of RO/DI for a couple days.

 

[Hoopsoulja]

Okay. Im raising the sg. Meantime, I think ive lost the hammer. Theres a small polyp like thing at the base which is still alive. Should i leave the entire thing inside thr tank or try cutting the dead branches so as to keep the remaining polyp alive. TIA

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Yes just leave it for a few months, never know it could regrow the heads. I'd really like to know what was so toxic for it in your tank.

 

[Hoopsoulja]

Id like to know that myself. Ill take a sample of my water to a lfs to have them check it out. My zoas have tripled in number in a few weeks. And i think the octospawn is doing good.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

That octospawn is very nice. How much did they charge you for it?

 

[Hoopsoulja]

23 usd. Good deal?

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Absolutely! That's a fantastic buy.

 

[homer1475]

That polyp on the base is not anything related to a hammer. Looks like a palythoa of some sort. I would still leave the skeleton in the tank. Many LPS have been known to all of a sudden spout a new head when it was long thought dead.

 

[Hoopsoulja]

That polyp on the base is not anything related to a hammer. Looks like a palythoa of some sort. I would still leave the skeleton in the tank. Many LPS have been known to all of a sudden spout a new head when it was long thought dead.

Thanks. Ill leave it as it is.

 

[Bmurray86]

Mine went through a phase of not growing and it almost died. I bumped up the salinity to 1.028 for a month and It bounced back. I keep the tank at 81 degrees and make sure it's getting enough light.

 

[Hoopsoulja]

Mine went through a phase of not growing and it almost died. I bumped up the salinity to 1.028 for a month and It bounced back. I keep the tank at 81 degrees and make sure it's getting enough light.

Okay. Ill do that. Thanks.

 

[IdahoCindy]

My local Petco gal said that the fish there had "itch". She was dead serious.

 

[homer1475]

Mine went through a phase of not growing and it almost died. I bumped up the salinity to 1.028 for a month and It bounced back. I keep the tank at 81 degrees and make sure it's getting enough light.

1.028 is way to high if you have fish in the tank. Fine for corals short term, but an SG that high would cause problems down the road. Also 81 is fine, but doesn't leave much wiggle room if a heater gets stuck on, or a fan decides to go south, etc. You will start to kill things at 85F.