whats wrong with my hammer coral??

[thetermite]

my hammer coral has been doing very well until today! below are some pics, any ideas?

it may look like 1 coral but there actually is 3 of them on the same small rock.

it seems that its shriveling up and has a slit down its base. is it dying? pls help asap!!

 

[Kaluden]

My frogspawn did a similar thing and ended up with an extra head on it. They are similar corals but I am by no means an expert.

 

[Amphiprion]

Could be any number of potential reactions. Could you post some parameters?

 

[thetermite]

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 8-10
Phosphate: 0.2
PH: 8.2
Sg: 1.022
Ca: 450
Fe: 0.05
Kh: 10
Temp: 26c

I would say they're pretty stable and safe.

 

[BMorgan]

Seems stable enough to me. Any update on the coral? My frogspawn unfortunately bleached and died because I raised my temp too high due to a bad thermometer.

 

[thetermite]

That sucks dude. I don't use a heater, living in the middle east. Coral is still alive, but hasn't fully opened up in a few days. I'm really not sure what's going on. Still limp, and the base of the tentacles are kinda narrowing. I'm thinking of taking it off the rock and putting it in the quarantine tank until it gets better. But not sure how to take it off.

 

[Amphiprion]

Out of your parameters, I recommend raising your specific gravity and lowering your phosphate levels. What kind of water motion is the coral in? Too much and there is tissue damage; too little and there are other issues, such as anoxia, disease, etc. Is there anything picking at it?

 

[thetermite]

Water motion is right, at least I think so, will post a video soon. got a water change scheduled tmrw, being my sg up ans bring phosphate down. As far as something picking at it...the only thing that would, would be the banded coral shrimp, but never saw it picking at it. I noticed that it's tentacles are starting to lose color, possible bleaching maybe? How do I go about taking it off the rock without damaging the other corals?. Last thing I want is for it to die and making a mess in the water? QT ready for it.

 

[thetermite]

i think i need to remove that hammer coral before it dies and mess up my water quality. could someone give me some advice of removing it from its rock (baseball sized rock) without damaging the other hammers that are also attached to the same rock?

 

[Ace25]

Tough one. Best advice I could give for your question would be to first wave your hand near the hammer it get it to close up, then take it out of water and use an exact knife to cut any tissue at the base between heads if there is any. Then carefully use something like a dremel or bone cutters to cut the head off. Still a risky thing to do with the heads so close together.