HELP Newly Bought hammer coral shrunken

kevsqn · Feb 19, 2017

I just bought a hammer coral and another coral(i forgot the name,someone help with the name).
and it looks like this.
when i bought it on the store. its polyps are out.
i also did the regular acclimation method with reef dip.
my saltwater paramaters are fine.
ph=8
ammonia=0
nitrite=0
nitrate=0~5
temp=28
dkH=8
calcium=420

and what are those white stuff that are kinda floating around it.

thanks

TroutbumNV · Feb 19, 2017

Kinda hard to tell without a picture.

kevsqn · Feb 19, 2017

TroutbumNV said:
Kinda hard to tell without a picture.

sorry.there they are

Fish Werx · Feb 19, 2017

Oh man, those guys are pretty severely retracted! If it was a quick thing, like immediately when you introduced them to the tank vs over a few days I would say something is really upsetting them. If it took a few days, then I would say they are possibly dying due to something not right or damage of some sort?

You didnt mention your SG on your tank perams. Sometimes the LFS around my area keep their livestock in hypo-salinity tanks and not acclimating the corals and inverts especially slowly and carefully can lead to severe shock when they hit the tank water due to higher salt levels than where they have been for a while.

Also, too much water flow on these guys can cause them to retract like that. But it would have to be a direct blast from the powerheads probably.

Lastly, these guys have to be handed extremely carefully when transporting and placing in the tanks. Their skeletal structure right around each polyp is extremely sharp. It will cut right through the flesh with the slightest bump.

The white stuff floating around the heads could be the slime they release when upset, or some of the fleshy parts coming off due to damage? Hard to tell in the pics.

I hope some of this helps?

And it looks like you have a Wall hammer or frogspawn (difficult to tell when retracted that far) and a branching type of one as well?

Best of luck! Hopefully they bounce back for you.

kevsqn · Feb 19, 2017

Yea, it was like that the moment it hit the tank. I didnt even get to see its polyps. could be the salinity though as im using using a hydrometer and it isnt accurate.
This is the latest picture of the other one. i use a tiny dropper and blasted off the white mucus(is that fine?), can definitely see the color more.
Tried to blast the other one, but the white slime wouldnt come off still.
Ill wait until tomorrow, if it doesnt still open up. I should just let it go right?
Thanks for the help man!

Fish Werx · Feb 19, 2017

kevsqn said:
Yea, it was like that the moment it hit the tank. I didnt even get to see its polyps. could be the salinity though as im using using a hydrometer and it isnt accurate.
This is the latest picture of the other one. i use a tiny dropper and blasted off the white mucus(is that fine?), can definitely see the color more.
Tried to blast the other one, but the white slime wouldnt come off still.
Ill wait until tomorrow, if it doesnt still open up. I should just let it go right?
Thanks for the help man!

Yeah, I would say using a dropper to lightly try to remove the slime prob will not hurt them further. But it may irritate them a bit since they are already stressed?
I have had some heads of euphyllia come back from way worse in the past. Had a particularly nasty peppermint shrimp that took to eating them! So just because they look bad doesnt mean that they are necessarily beyond the point of no return. Give em time, leave them alone and just see what happens. Most important is to not move them around a bunch.

kevsqn · Feb 19, 2017

Fish Werx said:
Yeah, I would say using a dropper to lightly try to remove the slime prob will not hurt them further. But it may irritate them a bit since they are already stressed?
I have had some heads of euphyllia come back from way worse in the past. Had a particularly nasty peppermint shrimp that took to eating them! So just because they look bad doesnt mean that they are necessarily beyond the point of no return. Give em time, leave them alone and just see what happens. Most important is to not move them around a bunch.

Thanks alot! Really appreciate the help.

Fish Werx · Feb 19, 2017

And, if you can swing it get a refractometer! Those things are irreplaceable in the hobby. Even if they arent calibrated perfectly, they can still be used to compare salinity in the acclimation container to the main tank levels... I usually just acclimate long enough to assure they are even then dip then place in thank.