Hammer coral! Will it recover? :(

[siskiou]

It's not my day today, apparently!
I just looked at my tank and discovered a hermit on the small hammer frag, that's been doing really well up till now.

The hermit is now in the refugium, but I'm really worried about the little frag.

There should be an attachment showing what it looks like now.

-Susanne

[spayne]

That hermit did a number on your hammer! They can be destructive little buggers when they want to be. I had to evict the hermits out of my nano because they were ganging up on the snails for their shells.

I'm sure someone will have better advice, but I would just pretty much leave the hammer alone and see what happens. Hopefully the damage doesn't kill the entire frag. I imagine it's pretty traumatized right now though, so the damage might be as bad as it looks right now. Keep your fingers crossed and keep us posted!

Stacy

[siskiou]

It a tiny frag and was one of our daughter's birthday gifts! :(

She'll be very unhappy when she gets home from school!

If it doesn't make it, we'll have to find another one (got this one in Portland at Waves).

I wonder if Sean has any...
Portland is just not in the picture with the current gas prices.

[impur]

Hmm keep it in lower light area, moderate flow. Doesn't necessarily look bad from what i can tell. Pic is small. Could just have retracted since the hermit was bothering it. Try feeding it.

[siskiou]

Pic is small. Could just have retracted since the hermit was bothering it. Try feeding it.

Did you click on the attachment to open it up in a larger window?
To me it looks like only a few arms have a chance to recover.
The rest looks "popped" or completely gone.

I hope you are right, though, and things will look better tomorrow.
I've turned one of the lights off and will try feeding it.

[impur]

Yah i made it as large as i could. I can see what you are talking about, but i still think there is a good chance its just deflated and retracted.

[spayne]

If it doesn't make it, we'll have to find another one
If worse comes to worse and it doesn't make it, let me know. We have a pinkish/tan with white tipped hammer that we could get a frag of for you. We haven't fragged it yet because it's in a difficult spot to get to!

I'm hoping Miles is right, though! Give it a few days. It's probably good and crabby right now!

Stacy

[Palani]

With any LPS give it some moderate direct flow about 12-18" away from the frag. It will recover. Look to see if the hermit did any skeletal dammage (the little fins that stick up from inside the stalks), if all of the "fins" are well rounded and nothing is flaked off, you are in the green. If you see some places where it has been chipped off, you deffinatly want to put it in some moderate direct flow. In this case, there will be some die off, but in a month it should grow back to it's normal self.

[siskiou]

If worse comes to worse and it doesn't make it, let me know. We have a pinkish/tan with white tipped hammer that we could get a frag of for you.
Stacy

Thank you!

I'll keep this thread updated and I'm still hoping it will recover in a few days!

[siskiou]

if all of the "fins" are well rounded and nothing is flaked off, you are in the green.

Hm, I'm trying to figure out what the "fins" would be.
Do you see any when looking at my attachment, or is it not big enough?

I'm not quite sure what I'm looking for.

[Michael7979]

By the 'fins' I'm assuming he means the ridges where the flesh attaches to the skeleton.

It sure looks pissed!! I believe you should be OK. I had a hammer that would look that way once in a while and rebound. The only problem I could see is if the hermit ripped the flesh away from the skeleton, that area most likely will die and might cause some problems. But don't worry about it til you see it. Give it a couple of days to recover and relax, keep us up dated too.

[siskiou]

Thanks! Will do!

[Palani]

Yep, Mike's got it right. That's why you need it to put it under moderate direct flow, to blow away all of the dead tissue, or else it's going to poison itself to death. I'm sure others have their own opinon, but it seemed to have worked for me.

[siskiou]

I have it in a moderate flow area to begin with, so that should be okay, I hope.

Thanks for the advice!

[impur]

Hows it looking this morning?

[spayne]

Hows it looking this morning?
I second that question! I'm hoping it's looking a lot better!

Stacy

[siskiou]

Sorry, I was at work and am just now looking at the forum!

It looks quite a bit improved, I'm happy to say! :)

Nowhere near as full as it was before, but definitely much better.

See attachment!

[impur]

Good deal. Looks much better. Did you feed it at all? That will help as well.

[siskiou]

I did try feeding it last night, but it wasn't interested then.

-Susanne

[Lowman]

that's much better, I think it will be okay

[Michael7979]

Good to hear its looking up!

[siskiou]

I just felt like posting a picture of the hammer.
It's sure growing up and doing very well!

I'm glad it wasn't permanently damaged!
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b331/siskiou/P1030281.jpg

[DChemist]

Cool- thanks for the updated photo. What a difference from the first photo you posted in this thread. Your photo is pretty blue- how would you describe the hammer's color?

It's neat see these threads updated over time.

[siskiou]

The hammer itself actually looks pretty accurate color wise, but the surroundings look bluer than in reality.
I should take a class on taking good photos, how to set the white balance and such.

[CCR]

Nice to see a happy recovery :)