Hammer polyp head dying

boeingn747 · May 9, 2022

I have had these hammers for years, I have fragged them several times. About 8mo ago I fragged it again. I got six two/three head frags. I kept three and sold three. I have noticed that on one of the frags that was 2 heads and is now three one of the heads is dying off. I have never had this happen. The mother colony looks amazing the other frags looks fine. The rest of this looks amazing too. I don't understand what it could be or what to try to do to stop it from getting worse. No other issue in the tank other than this. I looked for vermetid snails. I need some direction on possible cause and what to do. Thanks.

TopShelfAquatics · May 9, 2022

It definitely appears that the head in question is stressed. When we see something like this at our farm it can lead to polyp bail out where the whole head just falls our of the skeleton or what you have to really keep an eye for is brown jelly. Something must have stressed that head out. It could have been caused by a fish or invert picking at it or even if it got bumped during regular maintenance. I would keep a close eye on it. If it starts to take a turn for the worst and you see jelly, remove it right away as you don't want that spreading to all of your other euphyllia.

EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal · May 9, 2022

TopShelfAquatics said:
It definitely appears that the head in question is stressed. When we see something like this at our farm it can lead to polyp bail out where the whole head just falls our of the skeleton or what you have to really keep an eye for is brown jelly. Something must have stressed that head out. It could have been caused by a fish or invert picking at it or even if it got bumped during regular maintenance. I would keep a close eye on it. If it starts to take a turn for the worst and you see jelly, remove it right away as you don't want that spreading to all of your other euphyllia.

I recommend fragging off the "sick" head. If you want to try to save it, do an iodide dip and then return it to the tank. As mentioned above, if you see a brown, jelly-like substance on it, remove immediately (the best way I've found to do this without letting the jelly float into the rest of the tank is to submerge a baggie next to the coral and carefully place it inside, closing the bag with your hand before removing from the tank.). If you're ever in doubt about whether a coral has brown jelly, take it out and sniff it - I can't describe the smell other than it's disgusting and you'll know it if you smell it!
Good luck

boeingn747 · May 10, 2022

TopShelfAquatics said:
It definitely appears that the head in question is stressed. When we see something like this at our farm it can lead to polyp bail out where the whole head just falls our of the skeleton or what you have to really keep an eye for is brown jelly. Something must have stressed that head out. It could have been caused by a fish or invert picking at it or even if it got bumped during regular maintenance. I would keep a close eye on it. If it starts to take a turn for the worst and you see jelly, remove it right away as you don't want that spreading to all of your other euphyllia.

Great, thanks. I don't see any brow jelly. I do know what you are talking about though. I have seen it before on a buddies tank. If it gets worse or get brown jelly I will frag that head off. I have lugos, maybe I will monitor and dip it in lugos too.

boeingn747 · May 10, 2022

Erin1971Texas said:
I recommend fragging off the "sick" head. If you want to try to save it, do an iodide dip and then return it to the tank. As mentioned above, if you see a brown, jelly-like substance on it, remove immediately (the best way I've found to do this without letting the jelly float into the rest of the tank is to submerge a baggie next to the coral and carefully place it inside, closing the bag with your hand before removing from the tank.). If you're ever in doubt about whether a coral has brown jelly, take it out and sniff it - I can't describe the smell other than it's disgusting and you'll know it if you smell it!
Good luck

Thanks, good suggestion. I will try that. I have lugos too. I didn't think to do that becasue I didn't want to stress it out more. I think you are right though.