Is my hammer dying?

[Beezwax404]

I have had this two headed hammer for 6 months and its always done great and extended greatly every day. For the last 5 days its stayed pretty retracted and today a giant mouth opened up and is spewing alot of brown. Nornally its just one string but this is more slimy looking. There have been no chemistry changes at all. I added an emerald crab 3 weeks ago but it stayed in the rocks. I dont see any visible damage on them just always retracted. . also last night i saw a thin string of clear mucous coming from the side if the head. Like from thw base of a tentacle.

All my other corals are doing fine. I have a purple torch small zoa frag and a growing green candy cane. A few weeks ago my hammer was seeming to grow. One of the heads mouths grew over and it looks like it had 2 tiny mouths but then nothing happened. Now its all retracted.

Any help would be appreciated

 

[Lithoman]

I have a tough time with hammers.. Once it starts going downhill mine never recover..
I've tried dipping them when it gets like that but it never helped me..

Good luck I'm sure someone will chime in with question.. tank parameters, flow, lighting ect.

 

[Beezwax404]

29gal biocube with 40lb live rock and 25gal sump.
ammonia 0, nitrate 0 nitrate 3-4ppm, phosphate undetectable, Ca 460-480, Alk 12-13DkH, pH 8.0
Two Current USA Orbit IC at blues 100%, green 100%, reds 100%, white 75%, on from 5am - 5pm.
200gph flow coming from Sump with a one small Fluva CP1 powerhead blowing across the top.

1 small clownfish, 1 small YWG, 1 2.5inch mandarin dragonet, one emerald crab, 2 astrea snails, 4 blue leg hermits,
I run 2 100ml bags of purigen and a small pouch of carbon and phosguard

i feed 3 times a day PE calanus, spirulina brine and frozen cyclopods.

The Hammers mouth is also wide open.

I actually had alot of tank problems in the past and my hammer never suffered and was always open but now that its more stable the hammer is having problems =(.

I also heard they can retract before they split, is this true>?

 

[Lithoman]

I'm no expert but running 0 Phosphate is not good.. I did that and got Dinos. DKH a bit high. 8-10 is more the average user.
I would remove the phosguard till you need it.
You did say its spewing brown slimy mucus.. that's not good.. Is that from 1 head or both?

 

[Beezwax404]

1 head..the other head i saw a clear string of mucous from yesterday. and they both have been expelling strings of zooxanthelle but this is the first time it was like a slime. before all this happened it was growing nice and showing signs of splitting. then i bought an emerald crab and my problems began. could it be the emerald crab messing with it at night or something? im gonna take the carbon and the phosguard out. the phosguard zapped my bubble algae out in about 2 weeks. maybe it needs more phosphate

 

[Lithoman]

See if you can take some better pics of the hammer.. I would leave the carbon in.. Emerald Crab.. I never had a problem with them.. double check your salinity... mine was off and my torches were pulling back.. Calibration was off ..fixed and slowly got the salinity up and the torches opened back up..

Anyone else want care to chime in that might help Beezwax..

 

[Beezwax404]

Today it open mow but looks deformed.
Check this out

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Sounds like it could be flow. Did you change the lights or flow recently?

 

[NowGlazeIT]

That or maybe the crab got hungry. I can’t see the hammer well in this picture quality

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Is this crimped or folded in looking? Or is this where your seeing brown jelly?

 

[Beezwax404]

Is this crimped or folded in looking? Or is this where your seeing brown jelly?

yes its kinda folded in. thats the area i saw the clear string of mucous come from the other day. I cant see any open wounds on the hammer coral, but that area has been folded in for over a week. this is actually the biggest that this head has expanded in well over a week
it is constantly expanding to the level in the picture and then retracting again. this head also has what looks like 3 little mouths. It used to have a normal mouth a couple months ago and then it grew over and it looks like just 3 little holes in a triangle pattern on the head.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

The folding in part could be an injury in recovery. As for the extra mouths, that’s progress. Your coral is growing

 

[Beezwax404]

It did happen right after i put the emerald crab in. That and my GSP now closes the minute that there is no flow on it and doesnt reopen until the next day at sunrise. It used to just open and close based on the presence of light. I added an emerald crab and phosguard