Hammerhead Corals

[soggy]

wanna get one of these beauties. just wondering if they're hardy and easy to keep. if so, what kind of measures am i looking at. thanks,

[Dazza]

Choice of tank mates very impt consideration as most fishes cudnt resist taking a bite at these delicious beauties.

[soggy]

for example?

[pospeh]

Are you talking about hammer corals (genus euphyllia)?

They like good lighting, and moderate water movement.

As far as water quality goes, you need a mature tank in order to sustain them.

[soggy]

here's my newly aquired speciment. what say you all?

[silver2578]

my hammer when i first bought it 2 weeks ago

[silver2578]

my hammer 1 week later

- moderate water flow

- added Reef Advantage Calcium - Raises Calcium & maintains Magnesium + strontium (Dunno if it really helps but I see an increase in growth in all my corals - including mushrooms + leather finger ---dun ask me why)

- baby brine shrimp feeding once a week

[ReeF_LoVeR]

this is mine

[Dispar_Anthias]

Hammer coral require strong lighting such as MH or t5s and moderate current. These coral have very strong stinging tentacle so tankmate must be choose carefully

BTW my uncle's hammer close up

[DeepBlue]

this coral requires good exposure of light, a moderate flow of current...easily gets brown jelly like and dies.....so positioning the coral is actually very impt

[regularguy]

your choice of placing your hammer coral deep into the sand bed is a rather weird one. haven't seen anybody doing something like that before.

i guess beauty is in the eyes of the beholder

[hoppinghippos]

My hammer coral has "mouths" where occasionally a fan like filter comes out but quickly retracts back again. is this the mouth of the coral? or some other part of its anatomy?

[Sinn]

mine opened

[onghm]

hi,

just to share with you my experience with branching type hammer.

I've kept mine for 9 months already.

Bought it with 7 heads, now its 10 heads.

It need at least PL but when I upgraded to T5, it has better expansion.

Current-wise, mine prefer moderate flow, but not laminar.

Just enough to help it "lift" the polyps and light swaying.

If the current is too strong, it will not expand as big.

And yes, I put mine on the sandbed.

Reason, so that it has ample space for expansion without the concern of the polyp brushing against the sharp edge of rocks.

Above are just my experience, and i only kept one hammer so far

ok some pics to give some illustrations.

[onghm]

First of all, the polyps should not look like this during the lighting period.

Unless its a newly bought and is still climatising to your tank.

Or of course when the light just on lah

[onghm]

With a good expansion, there should be minimal gaps between the heads.

[onghm]

Another pic.

[onghm]

The next 2 pics show how much it can lift its polyps up from the skeleton.

[onghm]

another angle from below.

[onghm]

And lastly, the polyps should look plump and succulent.

If the water condition is not right, it will be skinny, darker brown, and limpy.

[onghm]

Just sharing my nine months relationship with this hammer.

[soggy]

beautiful hammers you guys got. i feel so inferior. but thanks for sharing the knowledge.

[pospeh]

Wha, I like those super-macro shots.

[onghm]

beautiful hammers you guys got. i feel so inferior. but thanks for sharing the knowledge.

Hi Soggy,

By sharing the pics, the aim is not to make you inferior.

Its to share with you the potential of this coral.

More often than not, we might not know how a coral should look like in the peak of their health.

And we might mistaken that it should look like how it was in the LFS.

When I first bought my hammer, it was not expanding big enough.

It look something like my first pic.

But the problem is, i thought that is how it should look like.

As it was in the same manner in the lfs.

Its after looking at other healthy specimen from other reefers that I realised the hammer is not positioned in the best place in terms of lighting, flow etc...

How I wish there is a place where other than the coral's requirement, there would be ample pics to show how a healthy specimen should look like versus one which is declining.

So that we can recognise what shape our corals are in and do remedy action.

Having said all these, I hoped mine is a healthy specimen.

If not, I would be giving the wrong direction

Again, I feel that current plays an important part for this coral, at least in my experience.

I mean the branching type.

[onghm]

Wha, I like those super-macro shots.

Thanks pospeh.

Have you seen the black and white version ?

http://www.sgreefclub.com/forum/index.php?...ifferently&st=0

Sorry