Hammer Coral

[55semireef]

Hey guys, recently I bought a Hammer Coral. I have done my research but I would stiil like to hear some questions to be answered and any experieces that you have with them.

When I turn off the lights, the Hammer coral will gradually pull back in. When the lights go on, then tentacles come out. Is that normal? Just want to be sure.


Also, anyone that has pics of their healthy Hammer I would love to see.

Thanks

[johnski]

Hi,
All my euphillia do this , was a bit of a shock at the beginning because all the books i read stated , feed them after lights out when the feeder tentacles are out, but now i feed during lights on and they're fine

HTH

John

[Wazzel]

That is normal.

[Sk8r]

If they are getting enough light and food during the day they do close up. If they're looking fat, relaxed and extended by day, you're doing well. They like more light than bubble does. They're quite forgiving, but they're happiest in enough current to toss their branches gently. Mine have thrived in the intermittent current of a Sea Swirl.

[55semireef]

Yep, my Hammer looks fat and relaxed with a gentle current pushing the tentacles back in forth. At night it pulls back in.

I want to get a picture of it. Does anyone have pictures of their own?

Thanks

[johnski]

Heres my little 4 headed branching hammer frag next to my branching frogspawn frag

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e282/jskfaehh/hammerANDfrog.jpg

Regards

John

[Paulc79]

What is that you used to attach your frags to the rock Johnski? Some sort of putty? Sorry for the derail, but I have not seen that before.

[johnski]

its deltec aquascape epoxy, supposed to cure to the colour of coralline , and in mine its a kind of light purple, so not a bad match.

[Wazzel]

It looks like he use two part epoxy puddy. I think "aquastick" is a trade name. Most LFS carry some form of it.

[fsn77]

Here's a couple of pix of our wall hammer...

Shortly after we bought it:
http://home.sc.rr.com/fsn77/Images/90gReef/WallHammer_20060509.JPG

A couple of days ago (about 1 month after first pic):
http://home.sc.rr.com/fsn77/Images/90gReef/WallHammer_20060604.JPG

I didn't know it until a couple of weeks after we bought it, but it had some sort of flat worm that liked the border between the flesh and skeleton. After I started removing them, it opened up even more (that's the biggest difference between the two pix). If nothing else, the worms were agitating it, so it wasn't fully open. It does seem much happier now.

Ours closes up almost completely at night, which is kind of cool because all you can see is the bright green on the shrunken hammers under the moonlights.

[55semireef]

Mine looks just like yoursfsn77.

johnski, that is an awsome hammer and frogspawn. I want to get a frogspawn next. :)