Prop a wall hammer?

It looks like coraline, but it is a constant rim around all of the coral...and it seems like it is dead-ish where it doesnt have the coraline.

And everyday I find my smallest blue-leg hermit in the center I assume chowing on decay. Yes, that pic is about an inch long where the coral is recessed. Originally it was fully open...and it has slowly gotten worse

In about 2 weeks I havent seen it open in the center again ..

 

That's probably because it is

I wouldn't expect the "dead" center area of the coral to grow back but I also wouldn't be worried unless what remains of the flesh starts to recede, rot or generally start looking bad.

Could be that your hermit is just eating whatever algae is growing on the dead spot. Algae will not grow on live/healthy areas of a coral, only on the dead spots.

 

Well, I think it gets a little larger everyday :/

TY for your help

Do you think a hammer can be propped like an elegant/elegance?

 

A good way to know for sure is by taking pics and comparing them. If you're anything like me, you don't notice slight/subtle changes when you look at things every day

And yes, I believe that you could follow the same procedure for fragging the hammer as was described in the article regading fragging an elegance

 

Bump...anybody else have an idea about this?

CYAN - that purpleish tissue under the skeleton used to wrap all the way around the rim..and it extends into the corals skeleton

RED - this area has no polyps that I've seen extend...I think this section is dying off slowly and it is spreading

 

I had this very same thing happen with a non branching hammer just like yours. Eventually the hammer completely died. I wished I had tried prop it, but I didn't. I went with the wait and see what happens attitude. From what I have been told you can prop hammers, but you can only cut them where there is no flesh. If I had it to do over again I would cut it through the middle where there is no flesh and see what happens. Best of luck with this. I hate to see any corals die. ( Lord knows I've killed my share)