Hammer Coral help

[Bauyer9]

A few months ago I received a Hammer Coral from a LFS. It was fragged from a huge colony while I was there and I took it home that day. It had 6 heads. Within the first week one of the smaller heads had died off. Since then it has been doing well. The last week or so, two of the heads have been smaller than usual. Yesterday I noticed the "flesh" was coming off at the base. The other 3 heads still seem to be doing great. If those two do die off, is there anything I can do to prevent losing the whole thing all together?

 

[reef lover]

The tank looks fairly young. Have you been feeding him directly?

 

[reefmagic]

Probably too low of nutrients in the water.

 

[Zack K]

What Lights do you have over your tank? What are your water Parameters?

 

[ahiggins]

The pic looks fine to me.
Above posters have all made valid points: nutrients in water column, less direct light, dont specifically target feed-they will poo more that way lol
I have a football sized one (4 heads) that I grew from a single golfball sized head. I even accidentally crushed him once :/

 

[Rpujol85]

I know it sounds pretty out there but I have had success dosing hydrogen peroxide in response to this happening. I have read you can even do diluted H2o2 dips too.

From what I can gather, there is basically a bacterial infection that causes the polyps to receed, and the infection ends up going deep into the coral skeleton, often spreading to other heads.

There is some info on this on Manhattanreefs.com with a MACNA speaker by the name of Justin Credible (I swear it's not a joke).

 

[ahiggins]

thats not crazy at all!
peroxide is a wonder cure! Just ask @twilliard haha

 

[twilliard]

Yes it is true H2O2 is another bottle to keep around.
The tissue recession is a sign to check your chemistry.