Something Wrong with Hammer Coral

[Alex 26.2]

I bought this hammer coral only about a week ago, It was doing great and for the last days only 2 of the heads have extended all day. The other two are not and it looks like something is coming out of one of the heads that is not extended. Any ideas what could be wrong? Or could a fish just be constantly rubbing against it.

All parameters are good and all other corals look great including 2 other frogspawn.

 

[sancho153]

Stuff coming out could be poo.... what kind of flow is it in? Did you dip it first?

 

[Alex 26.2]

It is in medium flow enough to make it move around a bit. Yes I dipped it in freshwater before I put it in.

 

[Psirex]

What color is the discharge?

 

[TropTrea]

is it in a slightly darker area? I have this happen to my big colonies very often when the bulk of the colony is shading the polyps on the edges. only soution I found for it is to split the colony. Yours is not so bit it should be doing this so I'm suspecting something is shading that side of it.

 

[kellerexpress]

You dipped in freshwater? No wonder it's mad.

 

[Rockys_Pride]

you dipped in freshwater? No wonder it's mad.

+1

 

[Alex 26.2]

It isn't too shaded but I'll move it and see what happens. The discharge is brown.

 

[Cleancoupe]

It's called brown slime diease if it's expelling brown stuff. Whichever heads are doing this break them off because if not it will spread to the whole colony.

 

[Psirex]

It's called brown slime diease if it's expelling brown stuff. Whichever heads are doing this break them off because if not it will spread to the whole colony.

What would cause it? How do you fix it?

 

[StephLionfish]

From what I've read, that is caused by infection. It's hard to treat, can spread to other corals in the tank, and smells TERRIBLE. I've read that Vit C helps. There's on other thing that people have tried, but it is hard on the coral. You can google it. I forgot what it is.

Do search brown jelly disease, OP. If it's coming from the mouth, that's not what it is, and just leave it alone and it should be fine. If it's BJD, frag the infected heads for sure.

 

[SomeDude12]

Definitely expelling waste and it definitely appears normal. The amusing thing about this hobby, is when you're new to something and there's a change, we're quick to assume something is wrong.

 

[Alex 26.2]

It is getting worse now, It looks like the polyps on the one head have fallen off or are falling off and the other head is getting worse. The branch on the bottom is fine. Do you think it is brown jelly disease? If I frag off the bad heads should I also do a water change to try and stop it spreading?

Here it is now:

 

[tmr11driver]

Hey there! These are just a few fyi's that I've noticed when loosing heads of hammer,frog, torch, is that there, if not 75% of the time, either being bothered/irritated to this point by bristtke worm/worms, or what looks to be little star fish that find there home in these types of corals if not many others. If i were you, possibly either dip in some coral rx, see if you get anything to come out, or if your head of hammer is beyond repair, really inspect what's right underneith the main skelaton, and let me know what you find. If there's some browning/black colored areas, or also as mentioned by another above, and am sure you already are aware of this, but after eating, whatever you may feed them, they do excrete a reddish brown string/strings of what you could call coral poo, I guess! Hope this helps in any way, thanks

 

[al0ha]

yes you might have brown jelly disease. i had a frag with that before. sadly the survival rate is low. u should break of those heads as a preventative measure