HELP! Something Ate my Hammer!

[n00bReefer]

Last night everything was fine .. woke up this morning and my Hammer corral's top has been eaten to the bone!!!! The object beside the hammer is an empty shell case.

Haven't had any issues with corals being eaten until this morning.

My tanks has the following:

4 - Hermit Crabs ( 2 blue and 2 orange legs )
5 - Snails 2 turbos, 3 nerith ( sp )
1 - Clown
1 - Citron Clown Goby
1 - Firefish Goby
1 - Springer Damsel

Haven't seen any hermits climb the tank before and the snails don't seem to bother any of the corals.

 

[RedoubtReef]

I've never owned a hammer coral, but I've had other LPS that bail out of their skeleton. If it bailed out, maybe the flow pushed it back behind your rocks?

 

[exnisstech]

I don't see anything on your list that I'm aware would eat a hammer. It's possible it just died. It looks small like maybe a singe head? It wouldn't be uncommon, at least no for me. I've had pretty decent luck with frogspawn but no so much hammer and torches and I have had then die within 24hrs.

 

[n00bReefer]

I don't see anything on your list that I'm aware would eat a hammer. It's possible it just died. It looks small like maybe a singe head? It wouldn't be uncommon, at least no for me. I've had pretty decent luck with frogspawn but no so much hammer and torches and I have had then die within 24hrs.

I can understand that but if it died I believe I would have noticed it looking in bad shape. This went from nice and plump to its top completely taken off. Sad too it was such a cool looking coral too !

 

[exnisstech]

I can understand that but if it died I believe I would have noticed it looking in bad shape. This went from nice and plump to its top completely taken off. Sad too it was such a cool looking coral too !

Agreed it is sad. I've had them just drop heads for no reason. Worst was a $400 hellfire torch. Did good for a few weeks and died over night. It's they last torch I'll try.

 

[afrokobe]

I can understand that but if it died I believe I would have noticed it looking in bad shape. This went from nice and plump to its top completely taken off. Sad too it was such a cool looking coral too !

you should check parameters, but sometimes it just happens. I have had better luck with aquacultured stuff than freshly imported.

 

[n00bReefer]

So I think this "bail" out may be right ... I see chunks of it on the bottom of the sea bed and in the rocks ....

 

[afrokobe]

So I think this "bail" out may be right ... I see chunks of it on the bottom of the sea bed and in the rocks ....

if you have a mushroom box or something, you could try putting the polyps in there. Super rare for it to regrow skeleton but it has been done before.

I had a torch bail before and it regrew a small skeleton, but flow managed to kick under the rocks and i lost track of it

 

[Uncle99]

Crabs.

 

[littlefoxx]

I cant keep hammers for whatever reason. They end up like this in my tank a lot, only one thats hasnt is one from biota