branching frogspawn? also hammer ?'s

[coral acquisition]

hi read something about a branching frogspawn. is there a difference? is there just a regular frogspawn?

i just saw this nice frogspawn at the LFS and i want it to grow as much as possible.

also i've seen frogspawns and hammers that are really green. are they a special breed or all of them have the potential to get really green?

can you put then together in the tank? should they be separated?

thanks

 

[goulashriot]

frogspawns and hammers have sweeper tentacles, so they should be placed apart in the tank so they cannot injure each other at night.

branching corals will spread out in different directions, like the branches of a tree. some are branching and some grow as a single piece stay whole the entire time.

as far as colors go, they vary from green to brown and tan, and in other variations as well. i have two hammers in my tank right now, one has tan stalks with green/purple tips and the other has purple stalks with florescent green tips.

also with colors, take note to what kind of lights your seller is using to light his/her tank, because it can also mess with the colors of the corals. i have seen hammers that appear to be bright yellow but are actually just green, and so on.

 

[coral acquisition]

so how can i tell if they are branching corals? could i just ask the store and hopefully they know or is there a specific look on branching frogspawns and hammers?

thanks

 

[goulashriot]

the two look completely different. examples:

"regular" hammer:
<img src="http://a1272.g.akamai.net/7/1272/1121/20030825161006/www.liveaquaria.com/images/products/bigimage/lg_82924.jpg">

branching hammer:
<img src="http://a1272.g.akamai.net/7/1272/1121/20030825161113/www.liveaquaria.com/images/products/bigimage/lg_82833.jpg">

you might not be able to tell with the polyps fully extended, its much easier to tell when they are withdrawn. most stores will also label them as branching or not.

hope this helps.

 

[paininthewrasse]

Hammer coral and frogspawn do have sweepers but they can touch eachother because they are very closely related.. its the other corals that you have to keep away

 

[coral acquisition]

would the tentacles hurt zoos, mushrooms or xenias?

 

[dendro982]

I had to remove hammers and frogspawn because they scorched the white xenia branch.

Euphyllia parancora and E. fimbriata (not used now, article is here),
Quote:
fimbriata species had T-shaped tentacle or polyp ends while ancora's were curved.

You can see my bright green and the cold green side-by-side here.

 

[Snaphook]

Can a frogspawn and hammer touch? I have a few that are pretty good size and I am worried about them touching. I would like to move them closer together to make some more room. Please advise.

Thanks

 

[coral acquisition]

i've never seen those sweepers. when do they come out?

 

[Turnermnk]

My frogspawn and hammer have been touching for a few months and haven't had any problems.

 

[nmprisons]

frogspawn and hammer can intermingle. i say this with 100% certaintly.

goulash, I know that you wer trying to be helpful and most of your information is right on, but you shouldn't post something that you are not 100% certain about.

 

[dendro982]

Can, like this:

My 2 cents.

 

[raoul]

Interesting article. I've been reading up on these lately, and I found a paper by E. Borneman. He noticed that the only Euphyllia species that doesn't play well with other Euphyllia was the torch coral. He said the others are fine.

dendro982 - those are some great pictures! I love the colors!

 

[raoul]

http://www.reefs.org/library/aquarium_net/0197/0197_2.html

here's a link to the article I mentioned above. Enjoy!

 

[macperry]

I got a single head of Frogspawn, and a double headed Hammer coral about a month ago. I put them on opposite sides of my tank, for fear of the whole "stinging sweeper problem". The Frog preyy much doubled in size over the last month, but the Hammer didn't seem too happy. After seeing some of the posts in this thread of pics of Hammers and Frogs together, I decided to give it a try a few days ago. The Hammer has doubled in size, and the Frog has gottten even bigger! There must be some kind of symbiotic relationship between the two types of closely related coral....who knows...I like the results though!

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Or it could be them competing for space.

As for colors, they come in a faritey of colors. I have 2 frog spawns, one is green with pink tips, the other, clear with green tips. Also the branching will be different between each animal. It all depends on light and flow.

The teniclas usually only come out when searching for food or defending it's area. Bubble corals also have sweeper tenicals as well. I have gone years without seeing any sweepers on my 6+ year old ones only to find them later on.

They can also be fed meaty foods but it's not required. Mine, now 6+ years old ha sonly been fed directly about a dozen times in that time period and it's growing just fine.

 

[raoul]

The Hammer has doubled in size, and the Frog has gottten even bigger! There must be some kind of symbiotic relationship between the two types of closely related coral....who knows...I like the results though!

It could be just better conditions for them in that spot too.
All these things are just so interesting!!

 

[macperry]

raoul: that's probably it...nice random flow with a little bit of shade...they seem to like it there.