RFA Eating Hammer Coral

Reefer37 · Feb 24, 2021

So did a WC last night and my hammer decided to bail out this morning. I've had horrible luck with hammers specifically, but have 4 torches and 3 frogspawns in a 45g tank with no issues that have all been doing great. Anyway, that's a whole other thing. I woke up to find my hammer bailed and some how ended up within reach of one of my RFA. I'm not sure if should leave it or try to remove? I just wasn't sure if it would harm the RFA. At this point I feel like it would do more harm than good trying to remove.

I feel like I'm pretty much done with hammers at this point. I'm going to test the tank when I get off work tonight, but everything else looks fine.

fishguy242 · Feb 24, 2021

well that is a first for me to see,think your right ,nature take it's course,test her see what is happening to hammers.

Daniel@R2R · Feb 24, 2021

WOW!! Never seen that before!!

OrangeCountyReefer · Feb 24, 2021

Stick to branching hammers they seem to do a lot better than wall hammers, as for the RFA eating it I've never seen that before. Let us know if the RFA is good a week from now

Uncle99 · Feb 24, 2021

When this happened, I freaked out
The RFA stuck to the clam shell, so, I guess the clams going to be toast.
They have been living together for a couple years now.
You never can tell what’s happens.

drblakjak55 · Feb 24, 2021

Push the nem off the clam shell. Use ice in a gauze or careful fingernails. clam worth way more and nem should do ok

sfin52 · Feb 24, 2021

I had nuclear green palys eat loose keyna trees. U didn't get a pic wish I did.

Ta2oodfreak · Feb 25, 2021

My RFA attacked my frogspawn a couple weeks ago. I was able to free it up and move it over a bit.

austibella · Feb 25, 2021

Reefer37 said:
So did a WC last night and my hammer decided to bail out this morning. I've had horrible luck with hammers specifically, but have 4 torches and 3 frogspawns in a 45g tank with no issues that have all been doing great. Anyway, that's a whole other thing. I woke up to find my hammer bailed and some how ended up within reach of one of my RFA. I'm not sure if should leave it or try to remove? I just wasn't sure if it would harm the RFA. At this point I feel like it would do more harm than good trying to remove.

I feel like I'm pretty much done with hammers at this point. I'm going to test the tank when I get off work tonight, but everything else looks fine.

View attachment 2047024 View attachment 2047025 View attachment 2047028

So sorry to hear that I never saw that before he must have been really hungry i guess. I have 7 rock flowers i feed them well cause they will eat small fish when they get big. I give them fresh seafood . I have seen them grab a hunk of shrimp , as I am trying to feed my larger fish.. But I have never seen the eat my corals. Nature really amazes me everytime.

eric.tech · Feb 25, 2021

I had a cristata torch bail yesterday. my tube nem got a piece and was chowing down on it.

Reefer37 · Feb 25, 2021

For those curious, I only have had branching hammers as I've heard the difficulty with wall style. Still have horrible luck with them no matter where I seem to put them in my tank. If anyone is a hammer master I'm all ears on what I might be doing wrong.

Parameters weren't too out of wack compared to how I normally keep things.

Salinity: 1.025
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Phosphate: .03
Calcium: 410
Alk: 7.5 (this is the only major dip I saw, which even wasn't that low, usually shoot for 8-8.5, but always find it a little lower after a WC due to Tropic Marin Pro mixing at a lower level)
Mag: 1250 (also a little lower than normal, try to always keep above 1300)

Nothing really stood out to me as to why they might have bailed, happened to both of my hammers of the same variety. The only thing that really changed with them was they were removed from the tank for a very short time to remove bubble algae that was growing at the base of the skeleton during the water change.

As for the nem I believe at some point last night he finally finished eating the hammer. Lights are out and he is TINY compared to normal. I'm hoping he'll be okay, but I guess we will see once lights come back on later. I do feed them pretty regularly, about once to twice a week with LRS reef frenzy.

Reefer37 · Feb 25, 2021

He's not looking good at all

Really hope I don't lose him as well. He was my favorite of the bunch.

Eagle_Steve · Feb 25, 2021

Reefer37 said:
He's not looking good at all
Really hope I don't lose him as well. He was my favorite of the bunch.

More than likely just trying to digest such a large chunk. Rfa are tough. Mine at a snail once and stayed balled up for a bout week. Then out came an empty shell and nem was fine lol.

Reefer37 · Feb 25, 2021

Eagle_Steve said:
More than likely just trying to digest such a large chunk. Rfa are tough. Mine at a snail once and stayed balled up for a bout week. Then out came an empty shell and nem was fine lol.

Haha that's awesome. Let's hope for that. It was a decent sized hammer head that was pinching.

Eagle_Steve · Feb 25, 2021

Reefer37 said:
Haha that's awesome. Let's hope for that. It was a decent sized hammer head that was pinching.

Just watch the nem. Not much you can do really. If you try to remove, that may harm it. Hoping for the best for the nem though.

stubigdog · Feb 25, 2021

fishguy242 said:
well that is a first for me to see,think your right ,nature take it's course,test her see what is happening to hammers.

IT could be another coral that is aggressive that stings the coral causing it to die

fishguy242 · Feb 25, 2021

stubigdog said:
IT could be another coral that is aggressive that stings the coral causing it to die

true,but appears to be polyp bailout on hammer skeleton,stinging will cause death,recession,infection,never seen bailout by sting,
how's nem today?? @Reefer37

Reefer37 · Feb 25, 2021

fishguy242 said:
true,but appears to be polyp bailout on hammer skeleton,stinging will cause death,recession,infection,never seen bailout by sting,
how's nem today?? @Reefer37

Definitely was not stung by another coral, none that could sting it within 6 in. Just polyp bail out.

Nem not looking too hot today. Pics above are from earlier, it really haven't change much in how it looks from those, but it is moving, which is either a good or bad sign.

Mr_Knightley · Feb 25, 2021

It looks to me like that nem is a goner. Hammers have particularly strong stings and can do a good deal of damage even to the outside of a nem, and much more to the internal organs of the nem. See if you can remove the hammer from the mouth, if it isn't too late already, and prepare an iodine dip for the nem as soon as possible. There is a chance of survival but if there's is a hole through the mouth to the foot ( like a nem donut) then it's too far gone to save.
Good luck with this man! Losing livestock is the pits of this hobby.

Reefer37 · Feb 26, 2021

Figured I'd update those who had been following along. Unfortunately the anemone did not make it. Toward the end he was aimlessly moving around and by this morning most of his guts were coming out of him, so I decided to pull him. Pretty bummed about it, but obviously even after polyp bail out hammers pack a punch with their sting.