Something is eating my branching hammer

[newreefer03]

Something in my tank is eating the heads of my branching hammer. I've lost 3 out of 4 heads now. I haven't actually caught anything eating them but every couple of days I lose a head. I initially thought it was a hitchhiking crab but I'm not so sure now as I placed the hammer away from the LR and I don't think the crabs would be able to climb onto the branch w/o falling off. My current suspects are a Flame angel and a coral banded shrimp. I know flames do nip at polyps and this one did nip at my pocillopora that bleached but I haven't actually seen it nip at the hammer. The coral banded shrimp has grown a bit since I got him and now chases the larger cleaner shrimps out of his way. I haven't heard of anything else in my tank that could get at and eat the hammer heads. My other fish are peaceful--2 ocellaris clowns, small hippo tang, neon goby, purple firefish, and royal gramma. I do have 3-4 small hitchhiking crabs--2 red ?mithrax crabs and 1-2 hairy stone crabs. Any ideas?

[karl wagner]

I don't think anything's eating it per se. I think it's probably just dying off due to high temperature, or water quality, based on your saying that your pocillopora pleached. Check your tank temperature, and do what you can to lower any parameters that are exceedingly high.

[newreefer03]

If it's the water, why would I head gradually lose its polyps, followed by another head? Wouldn't all the heads get worse at the same time? I do overfeed my tank and my phosphate is up slightly but I did do a water change and add Phosban and new carbon. I think the pocillopora did not tolerate shipping well and the water quality didn't help at that time.

[RobboT]

I had the same thing happen to a torch I had. I assumed it was water quality since I dont really have any known coral predators in the tank and had a sudden cyano bloom. I also lost a fungia at the same time. I bought a real skimmer at that point and havent had any problems with the frogspawn I have now. So I'd guess its something in the water. Of course Im assuming that hammer, torch and frogspawn all react similarly which may be a bad assumption.

[Tobyt]

newreefer03, how long has your tank been up?

I found hammers to be difficult with a new tank. I was only able to keep them after about 8 months. Branch heads would disappear overnight, shrinking and not coming out -- I could see small amounts of brown jelly in the skeleton. They also like calcium levels to be good.

[newreefer03]

My tank has been up about 6 months. I've gone through about 2-3 algae blooms and now seems to be in pretty good control. I last checked my calcium 2 weeks ago and it was 450 by the Seachem test. I dose the tank with kalkwasser every 2-3 days and add either seachem reef advantage or carbonate every 3-4 days. There is a little cyano in the tank but not really that much. There is probably more cyano in my refugium than my tank. I did have a nitrate level of 10 last week before the water change. The tank temp has been about 78 but no more than 80-81 the past 2 weeks. I lost the first head 3 weeks ago then another head last week, and the 3rd head this week. I've put a 2liter bottle top over the remaining head and it was fully extended this morning. Again if it was the water quality wouldn't all the heads be affected at the same time?

[Keith Sheridan]

Supposedly Eupyllias are sensitive to water paremeters, but my frogspawn has been doing great in my tank. I purchased it from Greg Hiller in January I think. I use tap water, so the paremeters aren't too good, and I haven't tested calcium in about two months. I have only done one water change in the last three months. I also feed the frogspawn chunks of krill on a weekly basis. Polyps are fully extended and for the most part always are.

[Tobyt]

If your hammer is a wild colony then it could be more sensitive than captive hammers. And you're right, you'd think all the heads would be affected at the same time, but each head is individual so depending on their immediate surround environment (waterflow, light, food access), some heads might succumb sooner than others. You can lose heads on branching hammers without losing the 'next door neighbour' branch. I'd fragment your remaining branches and place them in different parts of your tank or even another tank completely to try to save it. Fragging branching hammers is very easy.