hammer coral survive without target feeding??

[geecanlas]

hey i have a hammer coral that has clown fish living in it. it look really healthy probably the size of a grape fruit with a dozen head. do you really need to feed them or can they survive off the light, i have 4 48'' t5s( 2 10, 000 k and 2 actinic). i also do a 5 gallon water change a week in my 55 gallon tank. people say you have to feed em and people say you don't. my lfs say he never fed his lps and they do fine. what do you guys think? thanks in advance.

[texasrainman]

Mine continues to grow w/o target feeding

sent from my tamPAD

[mayjong]

never feed mine...
but i wish my clowns would host my hammer!

[afamousjohnson]

Never fed any of mine either. If your clowns are hosting it there is a good chance they will take care of it. I also don't target feed my lps but obviously if you did they would grow faster.

[monique27]

Nice pictures! I think you good without target feeding. You could target feed if you want faster growth but from your pictures everything looks good.

[geecanlas]

what is is the growth rate between target feeding and just letting it be??

[scsdukefan408]

what is is the growth rate between target feeding and just letting it be??

Honestly theres really no graph...everyones corals different and grows at different speeds...so its kinda hard to answer that,but it does help it grow to target feed it more than not

[Reeferz412]

I dont target feed my frogspawn or hammer, Both are happy and growing.

[sqwat]

dont feed my hammers torches or frogspawn and the poop every other day and grow great.i used to try but the mysis would just eventually fall out so i didnt

[ReefNOOBIE21]

i just posted the same question but is there comparative growth wtih feeding and not feeding?

[EllieSuz]

I do feed my frogspawn, hammers, duncan and torch. Not very much and not too often, maybe once a week. Of them all, I think the duncan needs it most and a recent growth spurt seems to uphold that theory. I quit feeding it for quite a while and whole sections of it died off. Now that it's back on a feeding schedule, it's growing five new heads.

[willietang021]

They do fine without any target feeding, but I do feed all of my hammers, frogspawn, and torch. They do grow faster. But not every feeding attempt is success, they do not take food every time I feed them.

[reeffreak75]

They do fine without target feeding and like Willietang021 said they will not take food when I feed them either...anyways..I have pics for comparison..I thought mine would never grow to a decent size...but look at the pics and u will c they actually grow pretty darn fast...

http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/ae164/jbravoa/007-2.jpg
This picture shows around 9 green hammer heads and like 8 purple hammers heads around 2010

http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/ae164/jbravoa/cf999548c4fb38a3554e715988879f65.jpgjust a few days ago...now the green hammer has a lot a lot of heads and I keep cutting them because they grow too fast..i have cut at least 12 heads from each to give my friends...that just gives u an idea of how much they grow if u give them lots of light and med flow,..no need for target feeding.

[bradhass87]

I have had bad luck with clowns and euphilia. They always caused them to retract and slowly die. I no longer keep clowns due to that reason.

[sqwat]

+1 on clown killing lps

[reeffreak75]

Agreed.i seen that happeing before. what clown were ur lps hosting..my clowns and friends clowns host mainly lps and never had problems..

[sqwat]

Torches aleovapora dunkin and elegance it depends on the clown how they treat them mine was a tomatoes and he would bite the polyps off or rub it to death.

[geecanlas]

i was worried to that my clown will kill the hammer slowly but my hammer look like it is happy and it might even be growing. the hammer open up even more now.

[scsdukefan408]

Mine go nuts in and out of my torch...they wont leave that side of the tank(think they think if they leave the torch will run away or somthing),but mine play hard in the torch and its always fully open,never looks damaged and I think it likes it...at night it widens its base giving the clowns a nice bed to sleep on.

[SLOW1]

I don't target feed my frog spawn, have over 100 heads now. I started with 3 heads. I did have some trouble with my clowns loving a frog spawn to death though. They would push into it hard enough to cut the soft tissue on the skeleton.

[geecanlas]

to slow1. how long did it take to grow that much.