Can’t keep wall hammers alive

[mjw011689]

I’ve recently had some issues with wall hammers. I lost one and I have another that I recently added that looks like is also dying. The flesh is wasting away on the skeleton and the polyps are not coming out all the way. This is exactly what happened to the one that died too.

I’ve got other lps that are doing fine. Couple torches and acans. I’m not seeing any parameter that is jumping out either.

1.025
Ph 8.0
Alk 8.8
Cal 425
Mag 1320
Phosphate fluctuates between 0.05 and 0.10
Nitrate around 10

Flow is low to medium around the coral, as is the lighting. Occasionally the nitrates have risen up above 25ish, but currently much lower. Would that even kill a hammer coral though? I feel like most euphyllia do ok with a bit of nitrate. Or are wall hammers more sensitive?

Haven’t seen any pest, every coral was dipped with coral rx, fish list is 2 black clowns, one spot foxface, and Naokos fairy wrasse. Never seen any of them even touch any of my coral let alone nip at one.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

From what I've heard, wall hammers are tough, it's all one polyp so it's extra vulnerable to damage, disease, recession. Try a branching hammer. Alot easier to keep.

 

[mjw011689]

Bummer. Does the same apply to wall frog/octospawn as well? Is there anything I’m missing or that I could change for future? And is there anything that can be done to save the coral? It’s still mostly there, but I know what’s coming if it doesn’t change direction soon

 

[Lavey29]

Bummer. Does the same apply to wall frog/octospawn as well? Is there anything I’m missing or that I could change for future? And is there anything that can be done to save the coral? It’s still mostly there, but I know what’s coming if it doesn’t change direction soon

Yes, wall type corals you mentioned are difficult to sustain long term due to issues mentioned above.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Bummer. Does the same apply to wall frog/octospawn as well? Is there anything I’m missing or that I could change for future? And is there anything that can be done to save the coral? It’s still mostly there, but I know what’s coming if it doesn’t change direction soon

I'm not much of an expert on euphyllia. If it smells like rotting tissue when you take it out or has a brown jelly/gelatin like substance on the polyp/tissue than it's probably brown jelly disease, if so then give it an iodine/revive dip and then a few 15 second RO dips afterward. If not then it's probably just polyp bailout/recession and it's just shocked/stressed from, well, it could be stressed by anything, check your parameters, if everything is stable and nothing is picking at it then it's probably dying from shock after being in a new system/water parameter change. If the tank is new and the parameters aren't stable it could be stressed due to that. I've never kept them myself, hoping to try one day, though they are an extremely sensitive coral and its not uncommon for them to struggle in captivity

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

Would be helpful if you posted pics

 

[GlassMunky]

It’s not you.
Walls are almost impossible to keep alive in tanks. I’ve actually never seen or met anyone that has had one for more than a year.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

It’s not you.
Walls are almost impossible to keep alive in tanks. I’ve actually never seen or met anyone that has had one for more than a year.

I do know a guy who has an incredible high-tech sps dominant system, used to work at my LFS, sometimes brings in huge grown-out colonies, a few weeks ago he brought in a wall hammer that he grew out for a year, though it is an incredibly high maintenance system, he does manual water tests twice daily nearly impossible for most of us, of course this is an exception, though really impressive.

 

[mjw011689]

It’s not you.
Walls are almost impossible to keep alive in tanks. I’ve actually never seen or met anyone that has had one for more than a year.

Had not heard this before. I always just assumed they were pretty much the same as branching types.

So that being said, are wall hammers supposed to be placed in the sand? Obviously you don’t want the sand getting up to the tissue, but other than that, they don’t need to be placed up on rockwork?


As for a photo, I will work on that. My phone is horrible at showing detail due to the blue of the lights, but I’ll see what I can do.

It’s definitely not brown jelly though. There’s nothing on the coral, just severe recession near one end of it.

 

[Lavey29]

I had a beautiful big bright yellow wall hammer for about 1.5 years and then it just started receding slowly from one side to the other. Dips didn't help. The very last thing it did was polyp bailout and these yellow polyps were floating around my tank. I just hoped one would catch a rock and start to grow but none did.

 

[UMALUM]

Just thinking out loud but seems if these things are so hard to keep in captivity then 99% of them must be wild which we all know can be much more of a challenge especially for younger systems. I think one of the biggest problems with this euphyllia trend the hobbies experiencing at the moment is the chop and swap of maricultured specimens to the point where no one really knows what their getting half the time.