Branching Hammer has Babies - pic

[reef_researcher]

About two weeks ago my hammer first sprouted baby polyps near the base. Now they have a skeleton forming and zooxanthellae of their own.
The last couple days the polyps have been in, I'll try to get a pic next time they're out.
has anyone had these before or have any special care tips?

 

[iCam]

Neat.

I have seen some people break them off carefully as they get a bit larger and relocate them to frag plugs.

On larger colonies, they will sometimes die off because the tissue from the larger polyps shades the babies.

 

[So Cal shaggy]

Mine have dozens of buds at their bases they were always just little buds due to the lack of light they do not do well if you break them off but after fragging some of the larger upper heads the little buds have grown in size and are filling out the empty area where the large heads were making the piece look full again.

 

[Sk8r]

Mine is finally up 8 inches under 250 w mh, and loving it, huge extension, blowing about gently under a sea swirl (1/2 inch) and exposing its offspring to the light. Getting enough movement without being too rough will help the daughter heads to grow.

 

[davejnz]

IME,I wait until there is enough skeletal material(branch) behind the polyp buds before i break them off of the mother colony.I've had a near 100% survival rate doing it this way.

 

[clkwrk]

Agreed I always break the lil buds of and mount them to a frag plug. People enjoy the lil ones.