My hammer has a bubble...

[5pacey]

I've had this hammer for about months now and it has doubled in size (from two heads to four) and is generally happy looking. However... I have seen it develop a sweeper tentacle couple months ago, which was a very interesting thing to watch. A very long one, relative to the size of the coral. Probably about 6" for the tentacle itself. The tentacle has disappeared now (haven't seen it in about 3 weeks). But... there is a giant bubble that developed instead. Almost identical looking to a bubble coral bubble. It kind of varies in size and I have no idea what to attribute it to. It seems to be getting larger and larger on the average... See the pics. The hammer is mostly recessed in those because the pics were made at night when I turned the lights just for few min.

Anyone has any idea what/why and if it's dangerous? As in not good for the coral?

Appreciate any ideas!

Thanks,

Spacey

 

[Nammy]

Not sure but I thought they did that when about to split

 

[~RuSh~]

Yup. Mine do that pretty regularly now. Bubbles are their way of developing a new head.

 

[5pacey]

Thanks guys. I thought, before the bubble appeared, that he looked like he/she/it is wanting to procreate... I have not tried to look under it's pants but I could swear there was another skeletal growth forming under there somewhere.

Spacey

 

[bellis31]

Wow that's odd, good to know it's normal! This would have freaked me out!

 

[cloak]

I've had both hammer corals and frogspawns that have doubled in size and I've never witnessed a bubble like that. I'm not saying that it's not an indication that it might be splitting, but IMO it's something else. I wouldn't panic though, threads like this don't end with the coral dying on a regular basis. This showed up on my favia years ago. It was there for at least 8 months but nothing ever became of it.

 

[Gourami]

I have a bubble on one of my frogspawns that looks just like that. It's been there for a few months now, doesn't seem to be bothering anything.

 

[asim58]

That's bizarre, my hammers never done that nor have I ever heard of that happening before.