Hammer Coral disease (pics added)

[Carpentersreef]

25% of my beautiful 8" hammer coral was covered with a white slime yesterday morning, and the tentacles affected have fallen off leaving exposed bare skeleton.
Has anybody seen this before or know what to about it? All other corals are doing fine and corals that are in the immediate vincinity are:hydnophora,turbinaria and caulastrea. I fragged a lobophytum (devils hand) pretty severely a couple of weeks ago, but have been running carbon.
Other than that, there have been no changes/additions/modifications

Could too strong of light from my HQI's have weakened it over time, leaving it prone to catching something?

Thanks,
Mitch

[ January 09, 2002: Message edited by: Carpentersreef ]</p>

 

[DK]

I would bet that the infection will reappear. The only success I have had is to siphon out the infected tissue as soon as it appears using airline tubing.

Good luck.

 

[MIKE NY1]

The same thing just happened to my branching Hammer. I got it as a frag back in Sept. The head just split in two and doing great. This past week I lost the whole coral from this infection. Every morning I siphoned it off, but it came back with a vengence. It was to small to cut the other head off. The water parmeters are the same and the lighting is still good and no other corals are effected. The coral hasn't been moved since the first day I placed it. I still have now idea what caused it. I have other Euphyllia species in the tank w/o any problems.

Mike

 

[Carpentersreef]

Thanks, guys...

Here's some pics

Mitch

 

[slimy]

I had this happen to a non-branching hammer. Fortunately, the hammer has several sections. The smallest, and first to go, disintegrated overnight. Another section started to develop this, but increasing the flow near the hammer and adding a bit of iodine seemed to stop this recession. But at the time, I had onlt had the hammer for about a week, so it was likely due to shipping stress. How long have you had the coral?

 

[Carpentersreef]

I've had the coral almost 2 years, and I added iodine shortly after seeing the infection. I've increased circulation around it, as well. One thing I have noticed is that the slime disappears during the day, but in the morning it's back as strong as ever. (Maybe the infection is sensitive to light?

)

Mitch