Strange growth on hammer coral base

[jblan145]

Anybody have an idea of what this is? Ever time I take the hammer out and take it of its back in just over a week

 

[jblan145]

Sorry here is a pic

 

[jblan145]

 

[Dkuhlmann]

A picture might help

But I have to ask why are you fooling with the coral so much, you say every time I take it out... ?

 

[jblan145]

 

[jblan145]

 

[jblan145]

 

[jblan145]

I only take it out to scrape the growth off the base

 

[Sk8r]

Corals hate to be moved or to wobble in the least. OTOH, this may be a close kin of xenia, which does spread. After scraping, you might blot the area very carefully with a cotton ball dipped in hydrogen peroxide, then rinse rinse, rinse and rinse in ro/di. The catch is, if any hydrogen peroxide is NOT rinsed off the stem and you put the coral back in the tank, the bubbles that rise from the area could burn the coral badly. Likewise if any h202 hits the hammer coral, it will burn it, possibly fatally. On returning it to the tank, I would hold it upside down for a while, so that if any bubbles at all rise, they will not hit the coral. Do NOT let the bubbles hit the coral.

 

[cloak]

They just look like some green star polyps IMO. You can scrape them off if you want, but as the Hammer coral grows it will most likely shade out the polyps. If they really start to grow just get some epoxy and smother the mat. Piece of cake. GL.