What is this coming out of my Hammer Coral?

Saw this last night, some of it fell off, some just went away. They heads that were expelling this shrunk up afterwords. They are back out and looking normal today.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
Matt

 

My frogspawn will do that every once in a while. Apparently they shed a mucous layer as a self cleaning. They'll close up for a day or two and then open up normally. I'd give it a couple of days before I'd worry too much or make any changes. OR it may be PO4 issues? OR it could be nuisance snail inside the heads?

 

looks like it's expelling yuckiness....anemones do this too. Your tank and inhabitants are looking awesome zesty!

 

Looks like expelling waste to me. And it also looks like a torch rather than a hammer.

 

Thanks all! I just left him be, they looked fine this morning when I turned on the lights. Just weird, I've had that guy for a few months and haven't seen anything like this.

Torch eh? How is the best way to tell between a torch and a hammer? (I'm a newb)

 

There easily confused but I think yours is a branching hammer.

 

I remember buying them and it was labeled a hammer (means nothing from some LFS) but unfortunately he looked a lot better before I got him :-[ He would extend out a lot more. Odd thing, is I have another hammer that's looking great... go figure...

 

Thanks! I just want them to grow!! And be healthy, seeing all these filled up tanks with huge corals are just amazing! Why do I pick hobbies that make me wait? Arrrrrrg

 

Do you have a picture with the heads fully open? It is tough to tell when they are closed like that. But from those pics, I also think they look like branching hammers. Basically the polyps are uniformly circular on a Torch, where as most polyps on a Hammer will have a 'U' shape to them. My Hammer took a few months before I could truly tell it was a Hammer as most polyps were circular.

 

Yup, here are 2 pictures from a while back. They have the "U" shape to them, but not anymore...

The first picture is from December 31, probably right after I got him. the second picture is from April, 17th. I guess he looks bigger now, but I don't see the "U" portion to them anymore. Plus they suck back down more than they used to... again, I have no idea why. haha

Thanks!