Euphillia (Hammer) aggression towards soft corals?

[MessyTom]

Just how aggressive will a Hammer coral be to soft corals such as mushrooms, leathers etc? I was just sold one under the advice that it's unlikely to cause any harm to soft corals, but how true is this? It's about 2" in diameter at the moment and in a small tank, so how much room would I need to leave around it to be safe?

Thanks in advance,
Tom

 

[droth335]

I can't speak to their aggression towards leathers but our euphylia (hammer & especially torch) keep anthelia & mushrooms at bay. They will also sting any lps or sps that get too close. They are weird though as our biggest frogspawn tolerated a green goniopora very close for several weeks and then one day decided not to tolerate it and we had to move it. About the only thing we've never had a problem with is another euphlyia as they do seem to tolerate their own kind. Just monitor it and if you see it stretching out a polyp or two to sting its neighbor then you can make adjustments in placement. Good luck!

 

[MessyTom]

Thanks for the reply Dave - I've put it in a corner at the front fairly out of the way, but I think I've spotted a better location for it where it can't get near anything. Will see how we go... It's the only coral in the tank at the moment though.

Cheers again

 

[sqwat]

they will sting and earatate every thing they touch.this causes brown jelly that can spread.

 

[~RuSh~]

I have a branching hammer and some xenia pretty close to each other. The xenia is spreading but at the same time the hammer is growing. The hammer is stinging the xenia... I can tell but the xenia doesn't seem to recieve much damage, it just closes up and then leans in the opposite direction. I think a torch would be more likely to cause serious damage as their sting can be more potent, but so far, my hammer hasn't really harmed my xenia, just keeps it at bay- as mentioned above.

 

[MessyTom]

Thanks,

I've just picked up a tubeworm from the LFS, and at the same time got them to put some "broken off" zoanthid polyps in the bag so I will place them right next to the Hammer to see what happens. If they're ok, I'll get a larger zoa piece.