Hammer Loss

[Anthony Kubiak]

Hi new to forum but have had salt water tank about 15 years. I have a mixed LPS tank that is well established . It is 210 gallons with a very wide range of LPS corals. I have a section reserved for hammer corals in an area where nothing should bother them. They have been doing great for 2 years and included some rarer hammers like a large 8 inch orange hammer and a gold stemmed pink hammer. I recently lost 5 out of 7 that I had ...water parameters have not changed AlK 9, CA 480, nitrates and phosphates very stable and no issues. I recently added a hammer from a popular on line vender and it rapidly deteriorated flesh just eroded to skeleton. This was followed by the others. It has not yet affected any other coral type including some very nice torches. Is it possible that the hammer was infected and it spread to other hammers. Can an infected hammer inflict others that rapidly? Within 2 weeks all the losses occurred. They were all doing great for a long time and very much thriving followed by a very rapid deterioration with no real drastic parameter changes.
Thank for any thoughts
Anthony

 

[Anthony Kubiak]

Also no changes in lighting or flow. Using 2 vortTech MP40 set on tidal swell mode and eco tech lighting set on their LPS setting.
Thankd

 

[Auquanut]

I've never had this happen in my tanks, bit would definitely suspect the new hammer as the culprit. Hopefully you can get some info from someone with experience with this @REEFSQUAD?

 

[Anthony Kubiak]

Thanks for the reply..it’s a shame it happened so fast with things that were doing so well for so long. That is my thought since it has only affected hammers so far knock on wood just confused about the speed of it all and frequency of transmission of what Likely might be brown jelly

 

[Anthony Kubiak]

I have always dipped everything new...this vender said never to dip any torches and hammers iffy to dip.....so I followed their advice on this hammer. Not sure if that was a factor.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Welcome to the forum, sorry about the troubles. Hammers sometimes can be weird. The thing with hammers is sometimes you can never be sure what happened. Are these wall, branches or both?

The first thing I would do if you have not done so is to pull every hammered dead or receding badly out. Check the skeleton to see if you see any red bugs or other creatures. Probably not brown jelly as you would see it, but check any way.

My last thought if we ruled out bugs and jelly would be it just died. I know it’s not a great answer, but it happens to me from time to time. I will grow a basketball size colony over a year or so, then 1 day will come down from upstairs in the am and see a perfect white dead head. No changes in tank to suspect bugs or other things eating it. When it first happened I left that branch on and one by one I lost other branches. Eventually I fragged all the dead and dying branches and it stopped. A few months later it happened again on a different colony. This time I fragged branches right away and nothing else died

I ran into a few threads describing the same thing. Never really found a good answer. Hope it stops for you

And again #WelcometoR2R

 

[Anthony Kubiak]

Thanks for the thoughts...they were predominately wall hammers. I checked as you said and had removed the corals as this was occurring. No real visible indications that jump out. Did notice some brown stuff but not overly in excess... you are probably right brown jelly would probably be a lot more obvious versus just tissue disappearing. All other species of coral look great including torches. I guess there are a lot of mysteries in this hobby. I think I will wait a bit on hammers to make sure nothing else is affected and maybe replace with the branched variety...seems like most have better success with those. These just had great color and were special and you hate losing anything. Thanks again! I have learned much from reading reef to reef...its a great forum.

 

[Anthony Kubiak]

Also do you recommend dipping all types of Euphyllia...I have hear mixed reviews on this.
thanks again

 

[ScottR]

I would recommend an iodine dip as it’s gentle to euphyllia and would help to kill a disease. If you take them out, do they have a strange smell? You can do multiple dips - say a few times in a week. I can let you know my method if you’re interested.

Also, solid advice from @Mastiffsrule

Here’s my iodine dip tub.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hammer does best at lower part of tank under moderate lighting heavy in blue, moderate water flow and salinity of 1.025-1.026 and feeding 1-2x per week

 

[Anthony Kubiak]

ScottR ...yes that would be great thanks. They didn't seem to have an overly noticeable smell...I would just say a typical salt water aquatic type of odor. Nothing overwhelmingly strong.

 

[Anthony Kubiak]

vetteguy53081...thanks I had them about bottom 1/3..feed 2 x week with coral frenzy and fish get Rods Reef Blend Food so that contributes some feeding. Also dose with live phytoplankton/and fuel from Seachem Aquavitro 2-3 x week. I just try to compare the flow with videos of some top places. I guess I would describe it as moderate it is a noticeable flow waving with no direct single direction. Flow has always confused me I see some tanks with Euphyllia REALLY moving and others way more moderate. If they are open is that a good level of flow? I haven't played with lights to much just kept the Ecotechs on the recommended LPS plan and that didn't seem to cause stress. thanks for the info. PS see you are from Wisconsin...I am as well Burlington.

 

[vetteguy53081]

vetteguy53081...thanks I had them about bottom 1/3..feed 2 x week with coral frenzy and fish get Rods Reef Blend Food so that contributes some feeding. Also dose with live phytoplankton/and fuel from Seachem Aquavitro 2-3 x week. I just try to compare the flow with videos of some top places. I guess I would describe it as moderate it is a noticeable flow waving with no direct single direction. Flow has always confused me I see some tanks with Euphyllia REALLY moving and others way more moderate. If they are open is that a good level of flow? I haven't played with lights to much just kept the Ecotechs on the recommended LPS plan and that didn't seem to cause stress. thanks for the info. PS see you are from Wisconsin...I am as well Burlington.

Oh nice. Will be down your way Saturday stopping at burlington rv then headed to Racine for a summer party