Hammer Coral

[I.M.JR]

Hello everyone.
Recently one of my branching hammer lost a small piece of tissue on one of its heads, and its currently sitting on the bottom of my tank for about 2 days now, it seems to be open as if it was an individual head.
Q: Is it possible for a hammerhead coral to split like that and grow to be a new head without the use of the bone structure?
thanks.

 

[salt2salt]

Did something fall on it. Broken off pieces can survive.

 

[Nigel35]

never heard of a splitting head, probably broke off

 

[salt2salt]

never heard of a splitting head, probably broke off

Mine split all the time. Never fall off though.

 

[Uncle99]

Could be polyp “bailout”, if water conditions were well out of whack.

 

[I.M.JR]

never heard of a splitting head, probably broke off

Yeah, it did, but every time I’ve seen this happening the piece just dies off shortly, and so far this one hasn’t.

 

[Ludders]

Could be polyp “bailout”, if water conditions were well out of whack.

I've experienced this before

 

[vetteguy53081]

They do this when stressed or offered too much water flow
Rarely do they attach and recover but I’ve seen it happen at least once
You can place it into a cavity on live rock and see if it takes to it but very low flow in that area will be necessary

 

[I.M.JR]

Mine split all the time. Never fall off though.

I’ve always have splits also never fallen ones. This is a more recent picture from today.

 

[I.M.JR]

They do this when stressed or offered too much water flow
Rarely do they attach and recover but I’ve seen it happen at least once
You can place it into a cavity on live rock and see if it takes to it but very low flow in that area will be necessary

This is piece came from a head that somehow was damaged and was falling off, but the head reattached back tot he bone, but left this 1/4” piece falling till I just realized recently.

 

[I.M.JR]

I just glued it to a frag, and while I was carefully picking it up, I realized it has a piece of the exoskeleton from the head, it all makes sense now, hopefully I can make a full head out of it one day. “Natural fragging” haha

 

[Alex808]

I have a glass Anem cup and threw a hammer polyp that bailed out in it. Survived for a while

 

[Uncle99]

I just glued it to a frag, and while I was carefully picking it up, I realized it has a piece of the exoskeleton from the head, it all makes sense now, hopefully I can make a full head out of it one day. “Natural fragging” haha

Not polyp bailout if there’s some original skeleton.
Looks like it’s a baby frag now.

 

[LeftyReefer]

If there is a piece of the skeleton with it, it was probably broken off somehow.... If it was polyp bailout, it wouldn't have skeleton. I've had newly added euphyllia drop a tentacle or two when being added to a new tank. Seems to be some type of defensive mechanism. But this doesn't seem to be that.... Since this coral has been in the tank for a while. Glad you were able to glue it to a frag.

 

[ZoWhat]

Sometimes certain Hammers don't last bc of their environment

 

[I.M.JR]

If there is a piece of the skeleton with it, it was probably broken off somehow.... If it was polyp bailout, it wouldn't have skeleton. I've had newly added euphyllia drop a tentacle or two when being added to a new tank. Seems to be some type of defensive mechanism. But this doesn't seem to be that.... Since this coral has been in the tank for a while. Glad you were able to glue it to a frag.

Correct, honestly I don’t know how this happened, I don’t even have big fish that can cause such a thing. But hey, I’m happy for the new frag lol.

 

[I.M.JR]

If there is a piece of the skeleton with it, it was probably broken off somehow.... If it was polyp bailout, it wouldn't have skeleton. I've had newly added euphyllia drop a tentacle or two when being added to a new tank. Seems to be some type of defensive mechanism. But this doesn't seem to be that.... Since this coral has been in the tank for a while. Glad you were able to glue it to a frag.

Indeed, I’m super happy that I have a new mini frag and I don’t have to stress my hammer