Hammer coral polyps looks deflated :(

[Sujanreefs]

I bought a hammer coral yesterday. It has 2 big heads. One head is fine and the other head not so. When I bought it, it was angled in a way I didn't see the other head of the coral but I noticed it as soon as I got home (the differences of polyps in each head) . ANY THOUGHTS?

 

[fish farmer]

It may have been shaded. It looks fine to me, give some time to settle.

I recently moved one of my hammers and one head was completely shaded, very small tentacles and mostly bleached.

 

[JaaxReef]

Looks okay. Could be just adjusting to your lighting and not fully inflating. Especially if your lighting is quite different from where it was purchased. Sometimes they sulk as they adapt. If you start to see any brown slimy stuff on it or the tissue starts receding up the stalk, then maybe worry a little.

 

[Sujanreefs]

Also one half of the head is completely gone but no sign of dosease. I don't see any brown slimes ATM. I will just wait and give an update after 24 hours. Thank you

 

[mtraylor]

Did you dip the coral?

 

[Sujanreefs]

Did you dip the coral?

Yep I acclimated for 15 minutes and dipped in Seachem reef iodine dip

 

[mtraylor]

I use seachem reef dip as well. Thats a good dip. Especially for euyphylia. However. Its only good for things like bacteria infections, help heal cuts on corals, disease, etc....

This is not a dip for coral pests. The pests will take a bath in that stuff and just keep on trucking. You need something like revive. I use revive and reef dip at the same time as a coral dip. You need to ensure your coral doesn't have pests like flat worms. The revive will knock them off if there is.

 

[Dburr1014]

I bought a hammer coral yesterday. It has 2 big heads. One head is fine and the other head not so. When I bought it, it was angled in a way I didn't see the other head of the coral but I noticed it as soon as I got home (the differences of polyps in each head) . ANY THOUGHTS?

View attachment 3051095 View attachment 3051096

When buying any coral, ask to see it. Have them turn it over and spin it around. This will not damage it and will help you buy a healthy specimen. With the ridiculous prices they are asking now, it is very important.
LPS should have flesh coming off the heads an inch or two. That is healthy.
If the flesh stops at the head and white skeleton is showing or any skeleton really, pass.
Take a pic where the head is coming off please.
And also a pic with the head closed up. Just tap the skeleton a couple times and it will shrivel up.

 

[o2manyfish]

With LPS you have to think about the animal itself. First off the majority of the animal is water, it's a very thin layer of tissue filled with water. Changing environments from one set of parameters to another can be very traumatic to an animal where water is the majority of it's body. Also remember it has to pump all that water in/out of itself without any musculature to do so.
Given that you just picked up this coral, the handling of the coral in selecting it and transporting it could also cause a coral to look upset like this.
When removed from the original display tank, if the salesperson didn't take the time to 'upset' the coral so that it expressed alot of water out of itself and shrunk up then if they removed the coral out of the tank to place in a bag or container they lifted the equivalent of an ultra ultra thin water balloon out of the water filled to it's utmost capacity. If you've see the skeleton underneath the hammer it looks like a bunch of rounded razor blades pointed upward. The weight of the water within its own flesh pulling against its own skeleton is enough to shred the thin flesh. This can also happen if during transport the coral was sitting on it's head in the bag, or a head was sitting pressed up against the side of the bag on the drive home basically slicing itself up.
Now when you get this coral home, there is no chance it can immediately puff itself up. It needs time to heal.

So whether the coral is responding to a change in parameters, or to damage from collection and transportation, the head not being puffy right away is a natural occurence. If substantial damage was done to the tissue in the handling an transporting then you could lose the entire head.

Handling and transporting is especially critical with corals like bubbles and hammers that have so much of their size greater than the skeleton.

Dave B

 

[fishyjoes]

I received a 3 head hammer coral where one head opened within a couple of hours, one the next day, and the third not until like 5 days later

 

[MikeKloppZ]

With LPS you have to think about the animal itself. First off the majority of the animal is water, it's a very thin layer of tissue filled with water. Changing environments from one set of parameters to another can be very traumatic to an animal where water is the majority of it's body. Also remember it has to pump all that water in/out of itself without any musculature to do so.
Given that you just picked up this coral, the handling of the coral in selecting it and transporting it could also cause a coral to look upset like this.
When removed from the original display tank, if the salesperson didn't take the time to 'upset' the coral so that it expressed alot of water out of itself and shrunk up then if they removed the coral out of the tank to place in a bag or container they lifted the equivalent of an ultra ultra thin water balloon out of the water filled to it's utmost capacity. If you've see the skeleton underneath the hammer it looks like a bunch of rounded razor blades pointed upward. The weight of the water within its own flesh pulling against its own skeleton is enough to shred the thin flesh. This can also happen if during transport the coral was sitting on it's head in the bag, or a head was sitting pressed up against the side of the bag on the drive home basically slicing itself up.
Now when you get this coral home, there is no chance it can immediately puff itself up. It needs time to heal.

So whether the coral is responding to a change in parameters, or to damage from collection and transportation, the head not being puffy right away is a natural occurence. If substantial damage was done to the tissue in the handling an transporting then you could lose the entire head.

Handling and transporting is especially critical with corals like bubbles and hammers that have so much of their size greater than the skeleton.

Dave B

This is really helpful advice, makes me think more about coral handling when purchasing from lfs

 

[Sujanreefs]

With LPS you have to think about the animal itself. First off the majority of the animal is water, it's a very thin layer of tissue filled with water. Changing environments from one set of parameters to another can be very traumatic to an animal where water is the majority of it's body. Also remember it has to pump all that water in/out of itself without any musculature to do so.
Given that you just picked up this coral, the handling of the coral in selecting it and transporting it could also cause a coral to look upset like this.
When removed from the original display tank, if the salesperson didn't take the time to 'upset' the coral so that it expressed alot of water out of itself and shrunk up then if they removed the coral out of the tank to place in a bag or container they lifted the equivalent of an ultra ultra thin water balloon out of the water filled to it's utmost capacity. If you've see the skeleton underneath the hammer it looks like a bunch of rounded razor blades pointed upward. The weight of the water within its own flesh pulling against its own skeleton is enough to shred the thin flesh. This can also happen if during transport the coral was sitting on it's head in the bag, or a head was sitting pressed up against the side of the bag on the drive home basically slicing itself up.
Now when you get this coral home, there is no chance it can immediately puff itself up. It needs time to heal.

So whether the coral is responding to a change in parameters, or to damage from collection and transportation, the head not being puffy right away is a natural occurence. If substantial damage was done to the tissue in the handling an transporting then you could lose the entire head.

Handling and transporting is especially critical with corals like bubbles and hammers that have so much of their size greater than the skeleton.

Dave B

Thanks Dave! That was very helpful to know! will update on my coral tomorrow

 

[Sujanreefs]

This is really helpful advice, makes me think more about coral handling when purchasing from lfs

Yes very helpful, I have been in a hobby for almost 2 years and never considered that. Thanks a lot for the advice!

 

[Sujanreefs]

I use seachem reef dip as well. Thats a good dip. Especially for euyphylia. However. Its only good for things like bacteria infections, help heal cuts on corals, disease, etc....

This is not a dip for coral pests. The pests will take a bath in that stuff and just keep on trucking. You need something like revive. I use revive and reef dip at the same time as a coral dip. You need to ensure your coral doesn't have pests like flat worms. The revive will knock them off if there is.

Will consider using it in the future. Thanks for the advice

 

[Sujanreefs]

It's been 48hrs since I have put the coral in the tank, its looking lot better than yesterday I was just panicking do no reason . One of the head is half dead. I am not sure if it was caused my a disease before.

 

[MikeKloppZ]

It's been 48hrs since I have put the coral in the tank, its looking lot better than yesterday I was just panicking do no reason . One of the head is half dead. I am not sure if it was caused my a disease before.

I still worry when adding anything new into my tank. I have no where near the experience of the reefers on here but learnt to just leave the coral alone for at least 2 weeks on the bottom of the tank, unless it’s getting blasted by direct flow, I don’t change anything to make one coral happy if others are doing well. I added a gold branching coral 2 weeks ago and it’s still not fully open, other pic is my wall hammer which I,ve had for about 1 year, I make very small changes and keep things as stable as possible, hope the coral keeps improving

 

[fish farmer]

I still worry when adding anything new into my tank. I have no where near the experience of the reefers on here but learnt to just leave the coral alone for at least 2 weeks on the bottom of the tank, unless it’s getting blasted by direct flow, I don’t change anything to make one coral happy if others are doing well. I added a gold branching coral 2 weeks ago and it’s still not fully open, other pic is my wall hammer which I,ve had for about 1 year, I make very small changes and keep things as stable as possible, hope the coral keeps improving

I've been in this hobby awhile and I still worry. I usually keep corals down low for a couple weeks to a month before I move them.

The last two hammers I bought several years ago looked great out of the bag, both expanded. Within a month a head on each closed up and eventually died or bailed. But the surviving heads did fine, one of those corals is my profile pic now.

 

[MikeKloppZ]

It's been 48hrs since I have put the coral in the tank, its looking lot better than yesterday I was just panicking do no reason . One of the head is half dead. I am not sure if it was caused my a disease before.

don’t panic but looks like a vermetid snail is on the base, these can irritate coral when they cast out there webs trying to catch food but as the coral has been thru a lot let it chill, don’t think it would have caused the issues you have experienced but worth checking for other unwanted hitchhikers