coral of the week {euphyllia ancora} hammer

[shred5]

Week #24 coral of the week {euphyllia ancora} common names hammer coral. This coral is pictured on page 66 and 67 of the book the Corals a quick reference guide by Julian Sprung .

Every week I will post a new coral and I want you to post everything you know about this particular coral. Everything from common names, how hardy they are, water temp, water flow, lighting, water parameters, fraging, spawning, related corals, scientific names, feeding, best ways to ship, etc. Post your pictures for identification. Please tell us about your system so others can duplicate your success. Also email me for request on which corals you would like to see in this section.

Dave Polzin

[Tcook]

I've had mine for only a month but seems to be doing well near the bottom of the rockwork. Specificaly it is about 16" below a 175 watt 6500K MH, in low/moderate current just to keep it sweeping. I have an E. divisa and E. paradivisa on either side and E. glabrescens. All are doing well. Temp constant at 81, Ca>400, dKh always above 8. The anchor seems to be to more sensitive of the bunch. I ad DT to the tank but no directed feedings.

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[Neal358]

i love th em one of the coolest corals i think. have hade a reef for about 9 months and added one last month doing very very well i am no expert when i comes to corals but i do conseder myself fairaly knoledgable with some. the only thing is most of the hamers that i see i lfs (and they are good lfs very good) if left their for over a month they strart to decline for some reason. maby because the conditions changs from anding new fish and corals every week? i think that that from 1-10 one being ezy and 10 being dificalt i would give them a 5 right in the midel lots also get damaged from shiping the memebrain can be damged very ezy. when bying one i would ask the person geting the coral for you to pick it up and put it back down so it will close and you can properaly exsamen the mambrain one top witch cant be dome when the coral is full open and make sure all the skeliton is covered

[smiller]

Most of the Euphyllia prefer a slow current but will adjust to a stronger current, so I found this comment in the new Bornemann book interesting. He states that it is best to keep them in a low water movement area as high movement encourages sweepers to expand. If you have other corals nearby you don't want to see those babies!

[JonF]

Mine is doing well in a 150g 28 inch high tank. He's in the lower 1/3rd of the tank. Current is medium to gently sway his tentacles. Pretty hardy fellow that adapted well when I moved him - though didn't really expand fully for about 3 weeks after he settled. I keep my tank in the low 80 degree area and have 3 175w mhs and 2 160w vhos. good luck

[Drewman]

This was one of the first corals I got for my 45. It did well in the bottom half of the tank under PC's. I tried to place it in areas with more water movement, but it just didn't like that, so I ended up placing it in an area with only enough movement to gently move it from side to side. It had a really great color with actinics. It was a little larger than a softball, but most of it died when the tank was contaminated, so I decided to frag off the part with living tissue. I took it out of the water, and grabbed a chisel and a hammer (how ironic ;) ) This was quite a messy job. In the end, I actually ended up with two, very tiny hammers, but one died in the week after being fragged. As for water, it did well in >80 degrees, >400 CA, and ph around 8.2. It's a great coral, have fun.

Drew

[Niven]

Working at an LFS I get to see alot of these come in. One thing I have heard in the past is if they start to recede, dip them in a solution of iodine and tank water. They have suggested a double dose and it has worked for me. About a 5 min dip seems to work. I have saved most of the euphyllia that have come in. I now add the suggested amount of iodine whenever we get new corals in.
HTH,
Gareth