Hwarang Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 Hiya. Noticed a fishy smell coming from my aquarium this evening, so I poked around in there looking for dead stuff (but everything was accounted for) ... ... Ever since I bought a pair of electric blue hermits, I've been having a problem with tipped over rockwork and corals. Those things are clumsy bulldozers, and this weekend I'm going to sell them back to the LFS. Probably. Unfortunately, there has been one injury. My green hammer coral keeps getting tipped over, and I have arrived home 4 seperate occasions now to find it upside down, on it's "flesh" on the sand. The hammer coral is happy (extended, eating), I think because all my tank parameters are in line, but it has taken a toll - one whole polyp (is that the right word?) is dead and rotting. I hadn't seen it before because it was a back part of it, kinda hard to see. But when I was poking around today I could clearly see that the polyp was not only dead, but about 50% of the flesh had rotted off. I did a quick water change, but haven't had time to test the water yet. I suspect it will turn up some funky numbers - the green star polyps and mushrooms don't look to happy today. Tomorrow I'll do another water change when I get home from work, etc ... and I'll keep doing so until the water is clean again. But ... I don't know if I should take the coral out. Will the other polyp survive after the dead one rots off? If it's worth saving, I'd like to. If it's going to die, I want it out of the aquarium as fast as possible. Below is an image. Just as a note, the skeletal exposed part on the left side of the hammer coral was not always wedged in under the rock - I just did that when I discovered it, I had wanted to move the coral to a more stable location. Anyhow, Thanks for your advice! -me Link to comment
surfy Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 It is saveable so don't pull it out. They like med flow so if you can put it where it will get decent flow. Most likely the tissue got damaged from it's own skeleton during a fall. It takes a while but it should recover. Just make sure it won't get bothered for a while. Try puting some rocks around it to help prop it up. Link to comment
Korbin Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 Those are two separate large polyps right? If the dying one stanks up your tank, maybe you can dremel the skeleton in half? No reason to sacrifice the healthy polyp. IF your water paramters turn out to be fine, I would expect the hammer will be OK. As long as they have good water parameters, they can take quite a bit of abuse and bounce back. Link to comment
surfy Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 Unfortunatly that type of hammer is one whole "U" shaped coral, no seperate heads which means you can't divide it. Just keep up with the water quality and it should be ok. Link to comment
djconn Posted April 28, 2004 Share Posted April 28, 2004 Bummer man...I hate hermits My hammer is and probably will be my favorite coral in my 20H. I did notice from the very first day that mine is very sensitive to pressure ie. getting knocked over and falling/scraping itself on rockwork. Even the very first trip home in a little plastic bag seemed to injury it a little. My recommendation would be to completely wedge him in between two rocks. I've had mine like that for over a year and a half now and he's been doing great. Link to comment
Hwarang Posted April 28, 2004 Author Share Posted April 28, 2004 Hehe, I love how the hammer looks, but hate how it acts. It's too mean to my other corals. Link to comment
WhiteRat Posted April 29, 2004 Share Posted April 29, 2004 Out of curiousity, do you guys feed your hammers? If so, what? I just got my first, and it's a fantastic blue color. I have it about 20" from my 175w MH and it's expanded prettily. Ratty Ratty's Reefs Link to comment
theclearblue Posted April 29, 2004 Share Posted April 29, 2004 I don't feed mine directly, my clowns seem to think it's an anemone and will drop food in it. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.