Who is keeping a hammer coral in their 5.5?

[djconn]

Just wondering who has kept or is keeping hammers in their nanos? I'm thinking about putting one in my 5.5. Please post pics as well if ya got em.

[djconn]

Oh yeah, here are a few current pics of my 5.5...

 

 

 

:P

[cjm033]

lookin good. i have a hammer and a frogspawn i my 2.5 they are both 2 heads and dont harm ne thing. you just gota make you keep them in check as far as them growing.

 

-Chris

[doody]

Originally posted by cjm033

lookin good. i have a hammer and a frogspawn i my 2.5 they are both 2 heads and dont harm ne thing. you just gota make you keep them in check as far as them growing.

 

-Chris

What other corals do you have? I was warned not to keep frogspawn in my 5g. Then I thought HHHMMMMMM maybe a hammer would do.

[djconn]

Sounds nice...cjm, do you have any pics? I'd like to see what it looks like.

[john76]

I had a small hammer in my nano for about a week before I decided that it was unwise. It'll sting everything around it. It really depends on your aquascaping though. I have a lot of rock and there really is only room for corals that don't expand too much.

[lakedawgs]

According to www.liveaquaria.com the frogspawn and hammer both have long sweeper tentacles. I have read there and in some books that these are some mean corals when it comes to other tank mates. I love the hammer coral, but don't know if I would risk one in my 5gallon unless there was a good 6-8 inches of free space all the way around it. Or maybe you could try to get a smallish speciman.

Let us know if you get one,

Lakedawgs

[cjm033]

i have montis,polyps,zoos,brains,hyndophora,candy cane,yellow leather,a ric, and buncha corals. dj if you want pics i can emai l em to you but cant post em because they are too big to post,and if i resize em to the size postable eveyrthing gets way too blurry.

 

-Chris

[doody]

I assume bubble corals fall into this catagory?

[danieljames]

You can just reach in and clip the stinger tentacles. its not a problem. Reach in with a pair of cuticle scissors or just pinch them off with your fingernail. Very easily done. Doesn't affect the coral one bit in my experience.

[doody]

I've never heard of this. Will it just grow back? Is anyone else doing this?

[Sushi]

i've never heard of it either...

[danieljames]

sure. The hammer will grow another stinger. In my experience, it is usually only one or two extended polyps/ stingers. Very easy to spot. They are much longer obviously. Sprung in reef aquarium v. 1 mentions this as well. I've done it several times in my old 55. My hammer did not even react when i did it. Just snipped the extended tentacle as close to the colony as i could get. The coral did not even retract.

 

I believe coral is much tougher than our hobby seems to suggest. I once got an elegance from a store here in nash. When he was removing it, the skeleton broke (it was shaped like a "T"). Believe it or not, the employee just tore the tissue and split the coral by just pulling both pieces of skeleton. Literally tore it in half. The two halves where one of the healthiest specimens in my display. I'm not saying that is ok...just an example. Once in an established display and healthy, i've found most lps to be extremely tolerant. It is water quality and disease (brown jelly type things) that seem to really get to them.

 

I grew up in florida..diving in west palm and the keys. If you've ever dove a reef after storm activity (tropical storms, etc.), you would see what i mean. Rocks and rubble fall all over the place. Coral are split and smashed big time. But there they are....growing away even after the damage.

[doody]

Now, this makes me want one just to experiment

[jaguilar]

here is one good reason not to put one in a 5.5.....

 

 

i know that this is a frogspawn, but hammers are also capable of

putting out sweepers that are just as long. check out this thread

where i got this pic.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...wn&pagenumber=1

there's two pics of hammers in there with

the sweepers fully extended. and as far as cutting them, i've

never heard of this, but any tentacle is capable of becoming a

"sweeper". i've seen it on my torch. you cut one, and i'm sure

another one will just take it's place.

[djconn]

Very interesting DanielJames! I've never heard of that either. I have a pretty big hammer in my 20 that I'd love to break in half but I was always under the assumption that they were delicate. Also, when I suck up flatworms (the few I have left) that are on my hammer, I sometimes break off a tenticle by mistake and I always thought I was hurting it....I guess not.

 

I might just buy a smaller hammer specimen and try it in my 5.5. I have sufficient light and if I see a long stinger tenticle, I'm gonna clip it. Thanks for that info. It seems not too many other people were aware of that either.

[doody]

I guess the question would be how fast do they develope new ones? If you clip one tonight, do you have to be watching it within a week. If so, I don't feel it's worth it.

[danieljames]

I don't believe they will grow back that quickly doody. Mine never did. Some euphylia i've kept never produced them. Not sure there are any specific answers as to why they do. Perhaps some kind of chemical trigger when other coral are in to close of a proximity. Or maybe just evolution and survival type things. Its my understanding that all euphylia species (frogs, hammers, etc.) can be kept together without worries of territorial/stinging issues. A euphylia specific display with different color/species all crammed in (and touching) would be amazing. I've never seen anyone do this. Would love to see it.

 

djconn...did you see any adverse affects at all when you removed the polyps on your hammer by mistake? I never have.

[djconn]

Yes, the hammer pulled back (in) immediately when the polyp was torn. It was like some sort of reflex. But within an hour or so, all polyps were fully extended again. It really doesn't seem to bother it.

 

On a side note, I just moved my frogspawn right next to my big 12" hammer (they are touching) and they don't seem to be bothering each other at all. Might be cool to try 2 hammers of differing colors and 2 frogspawn in my 5.5. hmmmm....

[danieljames]

i was thinking djconn. When you are suctioning you pulled on the entire colony to remove that polyp. Thats why he reacted. When you reach in and snip a single polyp, you don't disturb the main colony at all. I've never had the colony react at all when i snip a single polyp.