Hammer Coral

I.M.JR · Dec 27, 2020

Hello everyone.
Recently one of my branching hammer lost a small piece of tissue on one of its heads, and its currently sitting on the bottom of my tank for about 2 days now, it seems to be open as if it was an individual head.
Q: Is it possible for a hammerhead coral to split like that and grow to be a new head without the use of the bone structure?
thanks.

salt2salt · Dec 27, 2020

Did something fall on it. Broken off pieces can survive.

Nigel35 · Dec 27, 2020

never heard of a splitting head, probably broke off

salt2salt · Dec 27, 2020

Nigel35 said:
never heard of a splitting head, probably broke off

Mine split all the time. Never fall off though.

Uncle99 · Dec 27, 2020

Could be polyp “bailout”, if water conditions were well out of whack.

I.M.JR · Dec 29, 2020

Nigel35 said:
never heard of a splitting head, probably broke off

Yeah, it did, but every time I’ve seen this happening the piece just dies off shortly, and so far this one hasn’t.

Ludders · Dec 29, 2020

Uncle99 said:
Could be polyp “bailout”, if water conditions were well out of whack.

I've experienced this before

vetteguy53081 · Dec 29, 2020

They do this when stressed or offered too much water flow
Rarely do they attach and recover but I’ve seen it happen at least once
You can place it into a cavity on live rock and see if it takes to it but very low flow in that area will be necessary

I.M.JR · Dec 29, 2020

salt2salt said:
Mine split all the time. Never fall off though.

I’ve always have splits also never fallen ones. This is a more recent picture from today.

I.M.JR · Dec 29, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
They do this when stressed or offered too much water flow
Rarely do they attach and recover but I’ve seen it happen at least once
You can place it into a cavity on live rock and see if it takes to it but very low flow in that area will be necessary

This is piece came from a head that somehow was damaged and was falling off, but the head reattached back tot he bone, but left this 1/4” piece falling till I just realized recently.

I.M.JR · Dec 31, 2020

I just glued it to a frag, and while I was carefully picking it up, I realized it has a piece of the exoskeleton from the head, it all makes sense now, hopefully I can make a full head out of it one day. “Natural fragging” haha

Alex808 · Dec 31, 2020

I have a glass Anem cup and threw a hammer polyp that bailed out in it. Survived for a while

Uncle99 · Dec 31, 2020

I.M.JR said:
I just glued it to a frag, and while I was carefully picking it up, I realized it has a piece of the exoskeleton from the head, it all makes sense now, hopefully I can make a full head out of it one day. “Natural fragging” haha

Not polyp bailout if there’s some original skeleton.
Looks like it’s a baby frag now.

LeftyReefer · Jan 1, 2021

If there is a piece of the skeleton with it, it was probably broken off somehow.... If it was polyp bailout, it wouldn't have skeleton. I've had newly added euphyllia drop a tentacle or two when being added to a new tank. Seems to be some type of defensive mechanism. But this doesn't seem to be that.... Since this coral has been in the tank for a while. Glad you were able to glue it to a frag.

ZoWhat · Jan 1, 2021

Sometimes certain Hammers don't last bc of their environment

I.M.JR · Jan 1, 2021

LeftyReefer said:
If there is a piece of the skeleton with it, it was probably broken off somehow.... If it was polyp bailout, it wouldn't have skeleton. I've had newly added euphyllia drop a tentacle or two when being added to a new tank. Seems to be some type of defensive mechanism. But this doesn't seem to be that.... Since this coral has been in the tank for a while. Glad you were able to glue it to a frag.

Correct, honestly I don’t know how this happened, I don’t even have big fish that can cause such a thing. But hey, I’m happy for the new frag lol.

I.M.JR · Jan 1, 2021

LeftyReefer said:
If there is a piece of the skeleton with it, it was probably broken off somehow.... If it was polyp bailout, it wouldn't have skeleton. I've had newly added euphyllia drop a tentacle or two when being added to a new tank. Seems to be some type of defensive mechanism. But this doesn't seem to be that.... Since this coral has been in the tank for a while. Glad you were able to glue it to a frag.

Indeed, I’m super happy that I have a new mini frag and I don’t have to stress my hammer