Damaged hammer coral

[guitarfish]

I have a new hammer coral I got tonight, resulting from a trade at the LFS. One of the three branches appears to have some damage. I can see some of the white calcerous skeleton that would ordinarily be hidden by the polyps.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/guitarfish/Fish/NewHammer.jpg

Not the greatest picture. Should I leave it be and see how it does? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Paintbug]

see the little thing sticking out from the coral on the right? i would remove that ASAP. it could just be getting used to your tank. mine did the same thing for a couple of days, now 2 of the 4 heads are spliting. :D

[Alaskan Reefer]

Should be fine, and if not there's nothing you can do other than provide the best climate possible for the coral.

I had a branching hammer like this suddenly drop from 8 heads to 1 still alive in the span of three days (no idea what happened) a few years ago, but now it's back to 12 heads. It's my small hammer. :)

[guitarfish]

Thanks for the feedback guys. This morning I still had two of the three heads open, although the damaged one seemed to be trying.

I have a lighting question. I have 260w (2x65 actinic, 2x65 10,000K). I have the hammer as high as I can place it, which is probably about 12" below the light (about 7-8" from water surface). Does that sound like it's going to get enough light?

[ACBlinky]

Should be okay, IME hammers do fine with PCs.
.
I've got a wall hammer under 130W PC + 28W T5 and a glass top in my 30g. It's about 20" down near the bottom of the tank and happy as can be, opening up nice and big and eating like a piggy :)

My branching hammer is under 300W PC on a 65g tank which is not too far off from what you've got, and has been doing really well. It's probably 16" below the lights, under a glass top as well:

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/ACBlinky/Coral/65ghammerFeb6Small.jpg

I would feed the damaged head if it's willing to eat, IME LPS are really resiliant and can bounce back nicely if they're well fed. I've rescued some 'hopeless cases' that are looking fantastic now thanks to things like mysis and Cyclopeeze.

[guitarfish]

Nice hammer there Blinky! Thanks for the reply, I'm encouraged.

[Paintbug]

i have my hammer under 260w PC myself. its growing, and in full bloom :D

[Aquabucket]

I deal with branching hammers quite a bit. They are somewhat delicate shippers and can get infected easily. Its not uncommon to loose a head or a few during shipping. Look for a brown jelly like subsatnce on the receding head as it is most likely doomed and could spread the infection to the other heads. To insure the health of the 2 good heads I would remove the coral and clip off the receding head ASAP.

It would also be a good idea to then run some fresh carbon.

Good luck.

[guitarfish]

Aqua, what kind of tool is used to remove the damaged branch?

I had a slipper coral years ago that got brown jelly, it was pretty nasty.

[Aquabucket]

I use a wire cutters and clip it as far down the base as possible. You will only need to clip about a 1/4" deep or so into the skeleton and then it should break off.

A scoping saw or similar would also work.

[guitarfish]

I removed the dying branch tonight. Just snapped it right off at the base, a nice clean break. The two healthy heads are opened back up. Thank you everyone for your help. Now I'm just going to watch 'er and hope she grows and flourishes.

[dragonyze]

sorry to head that its gone. didnt you say you just got it yesterday?

[guitarfish]

One of the three heads was damaged at the LFS and wouldn't open, that's what I got rid of. The other two look great.