Hammer Coral Retracting / Removing Vermetid Snails

[falcooo]

I have a hammer which has been extremely hardy the past 6 months. Almost always fully extended, but now as of the past week or so it has been staying pretty small/retracted. I had an issue a couple of weeks ago with high calcium and low alkalinity, but corrected the issue over the course of a week and back on track with stable parameters.  

 

I'm sure there's be a ton of various potential causes, but what are some of the most common reasons for an un-happy hammer? Could it be those small hard red tubes growing out of the base? I'm not sure what they are but I see them on parts of the rock work as well. 

 

[skyscraper2290]

The red tubes are possibly vermintid snails and can bother corals. I would pull it out and crush the tubes, dip it and put it back in and see if it helps.

[FISHnChix]

The tubes are weird but my hammers always get weird when I change the alk that much. Give them another 4-5 days and I bet it goes back to normal

[falcooo]

Here are some more pictures of the red tubes in various locations of the tank. Are they Vermetid Snails? If so, what are they? good, bad, or neither?

 

[falcooo]

After a real quick google search, it looks like they are Vermetid Snails which are apparently harmful to corals. My dumb self was just telling someone "look how cool these little red tubes are". I went in and manually removed as many as I could to the best of my ability. I used a scraper to try and get them as much off as possible. I will try to stay on top of removing them as I see them. But is there any other way to rid them from the tank? Do any fish/inverts prey on them?

[skyscraper2290]

I remember I had them before and manual removal/crushing them was about all I did. If you just stay on top of crushing them you should be good, I would coincide it with water changes.

[vegasgundog]

Ya, I thought they were cool at one time....... now I have a blue laser I bought on Ebay that I use to boil them inside their shell.

[mcarroll]

I have more Vermitids than you can count...doubt they are your issue.

 

What are your test results like?

 

How old is the tank?  Are you dosing/doing water changes?

[falcooo]

5 hours ago, mcarroll said:

I have more Vermitids than you can count...doubt they are your issue.

 

What are your test results like?

 

How old is the tank?  Are you dosing/doing water changes?

Tanks around 7 months old, and I am diligent with weekly water changes. I haven’t really needed to regularly dose quite yet, as I only have a few small stoney coral frags for now along with softies/LPS. Parameters stay pretty stable around 420ca, low 8s alk, and 1300 mg. Salinity @ 1.026 and temp around 80.