Having some pretty bad issues with euphyllia.

[thegriffer]

My first experience with keeping coral in a moderately large tank at least for me has gone quite bad. I have had my euphyllia for quite a long time in my 20 gallon and I thought i'd move it to the 70 gallon. Everything seemed to be happy before but now things have gone downhill.

Here are my issues:

1.

This is my hammer coral that I have had for just over a week now. It has not come out anymore than in this picture. In the store it seemed perfectly healthy. You can see now that around the edges it has started to die and lose tentacles. It does have "brown jelly" on it but im not too sure if it is actually brown jelly or just that its starting to die off and rot. I am not sure if it is brown jelly or not because none of my other euphyillia is doing that great either. Like I said this hammer looked perfect in the store and then about three days ago it start dying on me. I did what I could and moved everything to my little 8 gallon where all my levels are stable because I had a little ammonia spike in my 70 gallon (where all the coral was) and I am sure that did not help. So I am currently trying to raise my Alk and Calc.

2.

Before:

Before:

After:

So in this case you can see that heads are barely coming out now. I don't really have anything to say about this picture. My ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Salinity are all in check and I am still working on getting my calc and alk levels up since I all of the coral into a new tank.

I would really appreciate any help. Everything sort of just turned around and took a dump and I am completely lost.

Thanks.

 

[Vahanyos]

Things to consider: 1. Area of flow they are in now. 2. Lighting change 3. Acclimation process if any used

I know with my euphyllia, once they get settled in and I move them, they're a little stubborn for a bit but eventually open up

 

[Pongo]

My first try at keeping euphyllia was a wall hammer very similar to yours.
I had it for about 2 months when it started ejecting polyps like that in a zipper like fashion starting at one end and 3 days later all were gone.

It was frustrating because I couldn't see any changes in water parameters, lighting or flow.

Reading this article helped me understand some of the care requirements better and though not much has changed in my tank I've been able to keep many types of euphyllia now.

I hope it doesn't face the same demise as mine did.
Good random flow is important to make sure no detritus settles on them.
I know when first placed in my tank some will sulk for a day or two but then open up well.
I've also watched a peppermint shrimp destroy a small single head of branching hammer.

If you really think it is BJD, I would put it in a bath of saltwater and erythromycin.
I don't know what dose to use, I haven't read any specific instructions.
But before all hope is lost, maybe 1gm in whatever amount of seawater is needed to cover the coral in a small bowel for 30 minutes.
If it is going to dye anyway might as well give it a try and see if you can save it.

Good luck, let us know what you do and how it turns out.

 

[thegriffer]

Things to consider: 1. Area of flow they are in now. 2. Lighting change 3. Acclimation process if any used

I know with my euphyllia, once they get settled in and I move them, they're a little stubborn for a bit but eventually open up

I hope that is the case for the frogspawn I have had it for quite some time now.

 

[thegriffer]

My first try at keeping euphyllia was a wall hammer very similar to yours.
I had it for about 2 months when it started ejecting polyps like that in a zipper like fashion starting at one end and 3 days later all were gone.

It was frustrating because I couldn't see any changes in water parameters, lighting or flow.

Reading this article helped me understand some of the care requirements better and though not much has changed in my tank I've been able to keep many types of euphyllia now.

I hope it doesn't face the same demise as mine did.
Good random flow is important to make sure no detritus settles on them.
I know when first placed in my tank some will sulk for a day or two but then open up well.
I've also watched a peppermint shrimp destroy a small single head of branching hammer.

If you really think it is BJD, I would put it in a bath of saltwater and erythromycin.
I don't know what dose to use, I haven't read any specific instructions.
But before all hope is lost, maybe 1gm in whatever amount of seawater is needed to cover the coral in a small bowel for 30 minutes.
If it is going to dye anyway might as well give it a try and see if you can save it.

Good luck, let us know what you do and how it turns out.

I have pretty much ruled that it was brown jelly. All of the evidence pretty much pointed that out. So I ended up cutting off the dead ends and a little bit of the living tissue too then I did a freshwater dip. The good news is I haven't seen any brown jelly returning so far. Bad news is it doesn't look as great and now the hammer isn't coming out at all. I don't feel like it's gonna make it. This is what the hobby comes with though. Ups and downs. I really hope that at least the rest of the euphyillia can pull through.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Vahanyos]

To be clear, you bought it from the lfs and put it in your tank, and for a whole week it's been looking like the first picture, but it was puffed out at the lfs?

I've had euphyllia die on me when I didn't slowly transition them into my tank. Matching the same type flow, lighting, and drip acclimating them. I've only had this issue with the euphyllia tho. The new ones I put in were with much careful planning and care and they pulled through the stress of switching tanks

 

[thegriffer]

To be clear, you bought it from the lfs and put it in your tank, and for a whole week it's been looking like the first picture, but it was puffed out at the lfs?

I've had euphyllia die on me when I didn't slowly transition them into my tank. Matching the same type flow, lighting, and drip acclimating them. I've only had this issue with the euphyllia tho. The new ones I put in were with much careful planning and care and they pulled through the stress of switching tanks

Ya it looked perfect in the lfs and when I bring it home it just seems to die. I did drip acclimate and quite slowly too. But as far as replicating the conditions I probably could have done better. It is still closed after I cut off the dead ends but I feel its starting to come out a little more and I don't see any brown jelly. Im just gonna leave it where it is and hope it pulls through.

 

[thegriffer]

Well It sucks but I have lost the hammer coral and I found my anemone in the back of my tank melted, rotting and dead. Im gonna try to keep my head up and move past this. Everything else is doing fine for now. It was a lesson learned.