Hammer coral head possibly dying

[dragoneye898]

Hello, recently iv'e dipped my hammer in coral Rx in order to help clear it of flatworms ( I will be using flatworm exit this weekend) and I noticed before I dipped it that one of the heads was very shriveled up. Initially I just assumed it was due to the irritation from the flatworms however now I am afraid it is dying. If it is dying is there any way to save this head, and what possibly caused it?

The parameters are
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate : 0
Nitrate: 0
Ph: 8.0
Calcium: 400
Temperature : 76
The tanks is also still in the process of being re established.

http://imgur.com/5obfNqn
http://imgur.com/G9EBgOk

 

[mclevenger10]

Your tank "re-establishing" itself could be your problem with your LPS...what kind of flatworms do you have?

 

[dragoneye898]

Your tank "re-establishing" itself could be your problem with your LPS...what kind of flatworms do you have?

I believe they are rust brown flatworms (Convolutriloba retrogemma). The tank is re-establishing because I bought it off of craigslist (live) and transferred it. All of the other corals are looking great now, besides that one head on the hammer coral.

 

[Naiad]

Couple of things. I see another hammer nearby that could have stung this head. Also hammers often loose lower heads to self competition for food and light. At this point I would try target feeding the one head, watch the neighbors and give it time.

 

[dragoneye898]

Couple of things. I see another hammer nearby that could have stung this head. Also hammers often loose lower heads to self competition for food and light. At this point I would try target feeding the one head, watch the neighbors and give it time.

Exuse my newness but I thought that hammer coral wouldn't sting other hammer coral/ frogspawn with their sweeper tentacles (there's another small hammer next to it). I'll probably move the neighbor(smaller hammer) and try to spot feed it.
Thanks

 

[Naiad]

Exuse my newness but I thought that hammer coral wouldn't sting other hammer coral/ frogspawn with their sweeper tentacles (there's another small hammer next to it). I'll probably move the neighbor(smaller hammer) and try to spot feed it.
Thanks

They won't trigger a deffense response but if something else does it can get stung in the crossfire. It won't be near as bad if a non related coral stung him and a lot depends on how closely related they actually are. The head still shows some attempt to open so it doesn't seem if all is lost. It may just be minor damage.

 

[dragoneye898]

They won't trigger a deffense response but if something else does it can get stung in the crossfire. It won't be near as bad if a non related coral stung him and a lot depends on how closely related they actually are. The head still shows some attempt to open so it doesn't seem if all is lost. It may just be minor damage.

I Believe the smaller hammer fell off the larger hammer at some point. Here is a pic of the tank and how close they are https://i.imgur.com/sfdrlHN.jpg ( sorry if it is hard to tell because of the light or camera). So i should probably move the smaller hammer away from the one that is near the shrunken head and try to feed that head directly?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Naiad]

If he is a frag of the other then he is not likely the culprit. Is it possible this head got scratched or smashed during the dip?

 

[dragoneye898]

Hmm I did not think of that, it may possibly be that I may have smashed it a little bit during the dipping even though I was trying to be careful. Could this be the culprit and could it recover?

 

[Naiad]

Hmm I did not think of that, it may possibly be that I may have smashed it a little bit during the dipping even though I was trying to be careful. Could this be the culprit and could it recover?

Yes it could and it will very likely recover. I once dropped a rock on a huge hammer coral and other than making a bunch of smaller frags all of the heads recovered. The ones that got directly hit didn't look good for sometime but did pull through.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Agreed with Naiad. Find a good happy spot for flow and light it should recover, from a sting or handling.

Sorry to be off topic. But get a good ID of the flatworm. FW is pretty harsh stuff. Ive had blooms and they did pass. I do have pickers in my tanks though. Moving the tank probably stirred up bacteria and algae giving them a huge food source, hence the bloom. Curiously my bloom also coincided with many blooms in a 3 month period on 2 local reef boards.
Skim like heck(wet), siphon, filter socks and prime n stability. Stuff your already doing in the new tank.
Convolutriloba retrogemma is not a coral eater.

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index...latworms-and-other-bugs-that-make-you-see-red
http://www.alltropicalfish.com/salt...-planaria-flatworms-convolutriloba-retrogemma

 

[jsker]

looking at the parameters that you posted, your coral needs food. you need some nitrates in the tank for the corals to eat. what is you Po4, Mag, Alk? I my situation I had to much Po4 and my trace elements were very low and I was loosing color and I have bleaching going on.

 

[dragoneye898]

Agreed with Naiad. Find a good happy spot for flow and light it should recover, from a sting or handling.

Sorry to be off topic. But get a good ID of the flatworm. FW is pretty harsh stuff. Ive had blooms and they did pass. I do have pickers in my tanks though. Moving the tank probably stirred up bacteria and algae giving them a huge food source, hence the bloom. Curiously my bloom also coincided with many blooms in a 3 month period on 2 local reef boards.
Skim like heck(wet), siphon, filter socks and prime n stability. Stuff your already doing in the new tank.
Convolutriloba retrogemma is not a coral eater.

http://reefkeeping.com/joomla/index...latworms-and-other-bugs-that-make-you-see-red
http://www.alltropicalfish.com/salt...-planaria-flatworms-convolutriloba-retrogemma

I'm pretty positive they are red worms (Convolutriloba retrogemma) after looking at them very closely. Should I still use FE since even though they won't kill the coral? I was thinking it would be better to use FE because it would irritate the corals and potentially kill them later on due to them not getting enough nutrients. How harsh was FE? I have a phosphate reactor and plan to load it full of activated of carbon ( my LFS said that would be a good idea) and to do a 25% water change after we catch the worms.

 

[dragoneye898]

looking at the parameters that you posted, your coral needs food. you need some nitrates in the tank for the corals to eat. what is you Po4, Mag, Alk? I my situation I had to much Po4 and my trace elements were very low and I was loosing color and I have bleaching going on.

Pardon my newness but I thought nitrate was supposed to be 0 in a tank and that there was not supposed to be any at all. I don't have test kits for P04, Mag, and Alk however I plan to pick them up ASAP, are there any brands that you would recommend for those kits?
Thanks

 

[Naiad]

Pardon my newness but I thought nitrate was supposed to be 0 in a tank and that there was not supposed to be any at all. I don't have test kits for P04, Mag, and Alk however I plan to pick them up ASAP, are there any brands that you would recommend for those kits?
Thanks

The idea used to be to shoot for 0 NO3 back when it was almost impossible to actually obtain. Now with all our fancy equipment we can run a tank at 0 for long periods of time. This is bad for corals that require very small lvls for growth.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

FE will kill a lot of beneficial bugs too is all. If you want to start with a totally clean slate, fe works.

 

[jsker]

I

Pardon my newness but I thought nitrate was supposed to be 0 in a tank and that there was not supposed to be any at all. I don't have test kits for P04, Mag, and Alk however I plan to pick them up ASAP, are there any brands that you would recommend for those kits?
Thanks

It is all a discovery process.

 

[john.m.cole3]

i like the Salifert test kits. Easiest for me to read.

 

[dragoneye898]

The idea used to be to shoot for 0 NO3 back when it was almost impossible to actually obtain. Now with all our fancy equipment we can run a tank at 0 for long periods of time. This is bad for corals that require very small lvls for growth.

Also, I did notice that my salt has risen to 1.026 could that also be a reason why the hammer is irritated? The larger heads are also slimming a bit.

 

[dragoneye898]

Also, I did notice that my salt has risen to 1.026 could that also be a reason why the hammer is irritated? The larger heads are also slimming a bit.

I also did around a 15%-20% water change after I posted that.