Help!!! Hammer Coral - Receding Tissue

[CA Reefer]

Have a Green Wall Hammer that I've had for about 4 months. I noticed around the start of the new year that it had a couple of small areas where the tissue had receded up the skeleton a little.... It been growing like crazy and I thought it may have just been due to that

In looking at it today the tissue has receded up the whole length of the skeleton!!! It is in an area where there was fairly high flow, but it was not getting blasted.

I'm pretty worried as it's such an awesome coral. There's no signs of BJD or anything like that.....Calcium and Alk are higher than normal but this is the only coral that is showing any signs of potential distress

Ph 8.4
Alk 12
Calc 500+ (test only goes up to 500)

I plan on doing a 20% water change in the morning to get levels back in check. I had some Sea Lab 28 in my sump over the holidays while I was away. It was keeping everything in line perfectly up till this week...normally I use turbo calk and superbuffer Dkh to maintain calc & alk.

 

[Dentoid]

Tissue recession from the margin towards the center is fairly common and they are particularly sensitive to the chemicals released by large collections or specimens of certain soft corals such as Sinularia. That's according to Eric Borneman's, Aquarium Corals, page 308 under "Captive Care".

 

[CA Reefer]

Thanks unfortunately I don't have that book....after a WC levels are looking better. However the tissue coral is still receding at an alarming rate. It has now receded all the way up the side wall of the coral. No loss of zoozanthelle though...

I'm running 2 bags of carbon in the sump incase it's chemical warfare that's causing the recession.

Alk 10
Ph 8.3
Calc 450

 

[seatrueblue]

What kind of salt are you using that the calcium is 500+?

 

[CA Reefer]

I'm not using salt, I use filtered sea water that I buy from the LFS for 99c a gallon. Much easier than mixing salt...

The hammer is still hanging in there..running a couple of bags of carbon and changing out every 2 weeks seems to be helping. Think there was some chemical warfare going on..

 

[cheeks69]

If there's chemical warfare than very few corals can match the stinging power of a Euphyllia ! Besides the chemical imbalance going on, my experience is that these corals don't do very well under high flow particularly the Euphyllia ancora.

 

[Riley007]

I'm having a similar problem with a Hammer Coral in my 6 Gallon. I noticed it 2 days ago and it's receded quite a bit. My calcium is low at 340 so i'm in the process of buffing it.

One suggestion made to me was that my lighting wasn't good enough. I've added 2 additional LED's to the system (today) so i'll see what happens.

The recession is most notable on one of the 3 branches but is slowly happening on the other 2.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[cah73]

Euphylia are excellent indicators of water quality..usually something is wrong with water parameters if the tissue is receding. I had this problem a while ago..but once i fixed the problem, they are growing like crazy.

Things to check: (some are obvious)
1. Salinity....euphylia hate high salinity...this was my problem..
2.Temperature
3. Flow...Euphylia tend to do well with a "breezing" to almost no flow..they tend to be hindered in higher flow in my personal experience..i have had mine for 2.5 years now..


If all of these seem ok....i would try to dip it..probably an iodine dip...but possibly freshwater

gl to you...hope they survive

 

[twoclowns]

From my experiences the tissue recession is it is caused by protozoan try dipping it in a higher concentration 2x-3x rec of lugols solution then give it a few days and dip it again it should stop the recession unless its being caused by poor water quality. I have saved a few this way and the dipping has never caused any problems so you have nothing to lose trying it. Current can be fairly strong as I have a few that are near so acros and they take quite a strong current but a gentle sway of the polyps is best. They seem to be coming in with protozoans and sometimes it takes a few months for the problem to present itself, I always dip new euphies so to give them the best possible chance and hopefully not bring any into my system that has some that I have had since 1999. hope this helps, Keith

 

[BigAl07]

I'm with Keith on the DIP! I dip ALL new coral and maybe I'm an Over Dipper but any euhpy that has an issue gets on the Dip List. I did 1z - 2x a day for a few days. This usually makes them pout but they usually bounce back with more vigor than before.

Also I've noticed that my Euphies tend to withdraw a small amount right before they start making new heads.

I'd say anything Keith offers in the line of Euphies is advice you can count on. I've got some from him that are simply AMAZING!!

 

[Riley007]

Thanks for the advice, i'm going to do a large water change this weekend and will pick up some Lugol's tomorrow.