Mad hammer coral?

[mimi's fish]

Does anyone know what may be wrong with this guy? He was fine out and waving, I go back later and it looks like this.
Water conditions are good. I did have a law mower blenny die the night before this guy disappeared.

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[mcphock]

"Good" is subjective.

Please post values so we can begin to help.

 

[hiimsean]

Less of a mad hammer and more like a dead hammer

 

[ericwoo]

+1 on the dead hammer line of thought.

 

[mimi's fish]

HiImSean;951735 wrote: Less of a mad hammer and more like a dead hammer

Thats what I was afraid of. I just wasn't sure how it could have happened so fast.
thanks

 

[ericwoo]

Did the tank get hot? I lost a couple very fast after my tank heated too high once. What are your water parameters?

 

[mimi's fish]

I don't think there was a spike in the temperature.... Everything else in the tank is still fine. 2 clowns, blue tang, damsel, Royal Gramma, Fire and peppermint shrimp, diamond goby and several snails and hermit crabs. Zoa and duncan...
PH is 8.0
nitrite and nitrate are both 0
ammonia is 0

 

[hiimsean]

Could have been some sort of other parameter swing or if new reaction to new lights

 

[jennm]

Yep, to quote Dr. McCoy, "It's dead, Jim."

If you lost a fish too, something could be amiss. What's your specific gravity and temperature, in addition to what you posted?

Tank size, age (how long established) - I don't see a lot of coralline there...

How long had you had the fish that died?

More info will help us help you.

Jenn

 

[sewer urchin]

Yep, to quote Dr. McCoy, "It's dead, Jim."

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQSK-1X3ZRTMtnVSZ83_T4XTE6FGwlLtc_GKG8mKDJzxBZQqjJr9A" alt="" />

**** it, I'm a reef keeper not a doctor!

On a more serious note... Sorry for you loss. If and hope you get things stabilized.

 

[bulkrate]

I had much the same happen to my year-old frogspawn. Never figured out why but the finger's pointing to alk/temp swing.

But yes, that's dead. either you had polyp bailout happen (in which case you may want to look around your tank and see if some is still floating around - it can continue to sting other corals for days) or it just melted away.

 

[mimi's fish]

This is a 46 gallon tank, I purchased the tank about 3 months ago. It had been up and running for a little over a year and we moved everything. We have live rock and sand. I have noticed some green hair algae on the sides of the tank.
We only had the blenny for about 4 days when it died.

Temp is 78

 

[oldedb]

Mimi - I lost a hammer and a torch much the same way... Very quickly w/ no signs of prolonged distress. Then I lost an open brain, then I started losing an acan and one night I saw my 4 peppermint shrimp having a party on top of my Chalice coral. I am new to the hobby and no one ever mentioned to me that peppermint shrimp *can* eat LPS. Google peppermint shrimp eating hammer coral.... It's at least a possibility.

 

[mimi's fish]

oldedb;952264 wrote: Mimi - I lost a hammer and a torch much the same way... Very quickly w/ no signs of prolonged distress. Then I lost an open brain, then I started losing an acan and one night I saw my 4 peppermint shrimp having a party on top of my Chalice coral. I am new to the hobby and no one ever mentioned to me that peppermint shrimp *can* eat LPS. Google peppermint shrimp eating hammer coral.... It's at least a possibility.

Thank you!!!! I just looked this up! I noticed him by some of the other frags that I have.... Guess I will have to keep a watch out for him! :boo:

 

[jennm]

If the 'peppermint' shrimp were camel shrimp (instead) then yeah they are known coral munchers.

However in my experience, peppermints will clean up dead/dying coral tissue but not usually bother healthy stuff, except maybe yellow star polyps (parazoanthus) which resemble aiptasia.

Is it possible there was a temperature swing? They don't like sudden intense heat (or cold).

Jenn

 

[oldedb]

Jenn - When I was researching my theory on peppermints, I came across the camelback vs peppermint confusion. When I googled, I thought there was a pretty distinct visual difference. I could see how they could be mistaken to the someone that didn't know any better but I felt like there were some pretty distinct differences in shape and pattern.

2 questions...

1. Are there camel backs that visually look identical to peps?
2. If you had too many peps (I had 7 in a 60 gal b/c I didn't know any better) is it possible that they go rogue and target the corals?

I ask b/c I would seriously hesitate to add more and I know they are effective at controlling aptasia.

 

[jennm]

I suppose anything is possible. Creatures don't read books and I've seen plenty of creatures do things that aren't expected.

I never carried camelbacks but the place I worked at 100 years ago did. At first look it was easy to confuse the two.

Jenn