Save My Hammer Please

[dnsfpl]

it is doing fine for weeks, but the bottom potion suddenly turn like this yesterday
all my other Euphyllia are doing great

what could have cause this? any chance to recover?
anything i can do to aid its recovery?

thanks a million

 

[reidcrandall]

What are the tank parameters? Has anything changed recently?

What kind of other livestock are in the tank?

 

[dnsfpl]

water parameter
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 25ppm
salinity 1.024
pH 8.3
temperature 28

current livestock
blue tang
yellow tang
flame angel
true percula pair
purple firefish pair
chromis pair
diamond goby
neon goby
royal gramma
mandarin
CUC

 

[dogstar74]

I'd say take out the coral, break off the head that's dieing. That way if it's a bacteria, virus, etc, you'll most likely keep it from spreading to the other heads.

If it's a parasite that's eating the base of the coral, then you'll remove him while he's eating the head that's looking bad.

If it's getting stung by a neighboring coral, then it will remove it from the striking distance.

Just my thoughts.

Oh and do an autopsy if you can. See if you can find the Bristle worm or snail that's eating it.

Hope this helps,
Aaron

 

[reidcrandall]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15290870#post15290870 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dogstar74
I'd say take out the coral, break off the head that's dieing. That way if it's a bacteria, virus, etc, you'll most likely keep it from spreading to the other heads.

If it's a parasite that's eating the base of the coral, then you'll remove him while he's eating the head that's looking bad.

If it's getting stung by a neighboring coral, then it will remove it from the striking distance.

Just my thoughts.

Oh and do an autopsy if you can. See if you can find the Bristle worm or snail that's eating it.

Hope this helps,
Aaron

I can't argue with that plan.

 

[demonboy369]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15290837#post15290837 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dnsfpl
water parameter
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 25ppm
salinity 1.024
pH 8.3
temperature 28

current livestock
blue tang
yellow tang
flame angel
true percula pair
purple firefish pair
chromis pair
diamond goby
neon goby
royal gramma
mandarin
CUC

I would keep an eye on him and make sure hes not taking bites.

 

[demonboy369]

Btw how big is the tank? Its not the link in your sig is it? If so I would say its caused by fish

 

[briangg57]

Being that a torch and a hammer coral are in the same family, is it possible that your hammer is excreting waste. Such is the case with my torch. It looked like this for a few days then was as good as new.I wouldn't break off anything yet. I would just watch it for a couple of days.

 

[dnsfpl]

my flame angel is in there for months, unlikely caused by him

i place this wall hammer at the purple hammer position

 

[ludnix]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15290997#post15290997 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by briangg57
Being that a torch and a hammer coral are in the same family, is it possible that your hammer is excreting waste. Such is the case with my torch. It looked like this for a few days then was as good as new.I wouldn't break off anything yet. I would just watch it for a couple of days.

His picture shows the flesh actually ripped from the skeleton. I don't think it's excreting waste.

 

[briangg57]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15291121#post15291121 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ludnix
His picture shows the flesh actually ripped from the skeleton. I don't think it's excreting waste.

Yea, you're right. I didn't see that.

 

[dnsfpl]

should i use an air tube to siphon out the dead flesh?

 

[romsoccer12]

it could be the flame angel nipping at it. i would definitely frag off the dieing part ASAP. your nitrate is also very high so try gettign that down. siphoning wont rly do much, you really must try to frag of the decaying matter because since your tank is mostly populated by euphilia, if its a disease it can kill everything. IMO it looks like something is nibbling at it. I would think the flame angel would be the culprate, they can be very elusive.

 

[BFG]

It's the clown. I lost most of my hammer to my pair of true percula. They start to host the hammer until it gets too much for the hammer to bear and it withered away 1 by 1.

 

[romsoccer12]

crap my true percs just started hosting my hammer LOL

 

[Shablin]

I had a crab eating the skeleton of my hammer; Im sure some other species would eat the flesh too. I finally cought him after several months of nighttime checks. I stopped the damage from being done for a while by moving the hammer to another location.

 

[nflores]

my clowns ignored a perfectly good anemone and hassled my hammer down to a nub

 

[ludnix]

It should be obvious if it's the clowns, they usually don't host something to death overnight.

That said, my clowns are currently hosting both a hammer and frogspawn without issue.