What's up with my yellow hammer polyp?

[Seeko]

The polyp at the bottom won't extend fully. It's almost completely sucked in, where it used to at least extend some. It's been like this almost since I got it 04/10/2019. It looked healthy at the lfs as far as I can remember.

Water perimeters as of 04/29/2019:

Alkalinity: 9
Calcium: 420
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0
Amonia: 0
Salinity: 1.024

 

[Jon Fishman]

It looks good over-all to me..... I would say that you'll have new growth on it before you know it, not sure I'd worry about it..... May want to get your "Notates" up a bit though

 

[Seeko]

It looks good over-all to me..... I would say that you'll have new growth on it before you know it, not sure I'd worry about it..... May want to get your "Notates" up a bit though

Lol, nitrates*

What exactly does the sunken polyp mean, though?

 

[Jon Fishman]

Lol, nitrates*

What exactly does the sunken polyp mean, though?

I honestly have no idea, but I'd venture to guess that it just got irritated and never recovered. Did you glue the frag down? maybe a stray-drip.... who knows.

 

[Seeko]

No glue. Actually, I did injure a tentacle when I first put it in. I forgot to mention this. What's the recovery time on this?

 

[Jon Fishman]

No glue. Actually, I did injure a tentacle when I first put it in. I forgot to mention this. What's the recovery time on this?

I still think you'll just eventually get new growth and it will be like it never happened...... how fast something heals is probably the same as how fast it grows, i.e. "Depends on your tank"


PS: is everyone here some kind of professional photographer!!!!!!!

 

[Seeko]

Turns out, brown jelly. Should I just cut it off or medicate? This is my first illness in my tank.

 

[Livinlocal]

I would take it out and cut the infected polyp off ASAP before it spreads to the other polyp

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I can’t see if it is brown jelly, but regardless go ahead and frag it off. You can stick it in a lower flow w area to see if it makes a comeback, but at least you can try to save the others

Also, any shrimp or other inverts in tank, also wondering if it is going getting affected by his neighbor.

@Flippers4pups is pretty good with hammers. See what he thinks

 

[Livinlocal]

it's hard to tell, but what I could see, it looks like brown jelly. If you look around the edge of the skeleton, you could see remanence where it has not blown off yet.

 

[Seeko]

Best way to cut these?

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Depends on how much branch there is between the heads. Ideally a sniper to cut it at the base of the branch, but not into the other ones. Kinda like pruning a tree.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Could have started from stress and or shading. If it's brown jelly disease, frag it off the main colony and dip it with some iodine, like lugols solution.

http://aquariumcoraldiseases.weebly.com/brown-jelly-syndrome-bjs--brown-band-disease-brb.html

Fragging can be done by hand or using a clean, rust free utility knife out of water. Caution when using a blade.
Or a pair of clean side cutters.

 

[Seeko]

Drimmel works? Thanks everyone!!

 

[Seeko]

UPDATE

Diagnosis: Sand irritation in bone structure (See 2nd photo)

It's kinda crazy how much I've learned from just watching YouTube channels and reading posts from you guys.

There was sand inside the groves that the polyp extends from, so it was unable to fully extend. This probably came from me placing it in different areas of the aquarium to find a good place for it and I scooped up a bit of sand in the process. I was able to see this after removing it from the tank and examining it closer.

So, I went to the hardware store, got a diamond bit for my Dremel and went to work. I was able to cut just that section off, but after looking at it on these photos, it actually looks like there's still some brown left and maybe cross contamination from the debris as a result of cutting it.

Overall, my tank is looking pretty stressed (4th photo) and I hope it hasn't spread. My frog spawn is retracted kinda weird, compared to how it normally is and my pipe organs are fully retracted. I've seen the pipe organs retracted this way before, but not in a while. Should I do anything further, or just let the tank rest as is?

 

[Seeko]

Update:

Looks happy ;Shamefullyembarrased