Hammer Ejecting Plumes??

[scrambler1880]

Just got done reading the newspaper in front of my tank when I looked up in time to catch my large hammer emmiting some sort of milky white plume into the water column !?

The lights had just gone out so I wonder if this is some sort of spawning event? My Acan's really seem to hate it shriveled up instantly, all the other fish and corals seem fine...

Has anyone encountered something like this before, why would a hammer release large plumes of milky white stuff into the water

 

[SushiGirl]

You sure it wasn't a snail on the hammer somewhere?

 

[NanoReefN]

Why ?do snails spawn that way? Reason I ask is because I saw a cloud of something the other day
Just like described above.

 

[oceanarium]

Hammers spawn in the way exactly as you describe... pretty cool to watch.

They are currently spawning these past few days in the southern hemisphere, we often find recent wild collected ones still spawn as would expected in the wild. Pre programmed you would say.

be even more impressive and quite rare to happen if you have had it for some time?

 

[SushiGirl]

Why ?do snails spawn that way? Reason I ask is because I saw a cloud of something the other day
Just like described above.

Yes. Mini brittle stars & bristleworms too.

Oceanarium, very very cool! I suspected they might, nice to have confirmation.

 

[Andrew]

It's very rare for hammer's to spawn in a tank and I've only read one other case about it before. My snails do it all the time and you'll randomly see white clouds in the tank.

 

[NanoReefN]

That's probably why I have a ton of mini brittles in my tank!

 

[Zombie Reef]

Mine did it once a long time ago. It was pumping out tinny red spheres. It would retract and expand while it was doing it. It lasted several minutes.

 

[oceanarium]

Hammer corals can be male or female, the red balls are eggs. I have seen a few reefers manage to have hammers release eggs in captivity. Never been lucky enough myself though.

The plumes scrambler1880 refers to would be sperm the coral puffs itself up and deflates ejecting a plume of sperm in a rhythmic action every few / 15-20 seconds. I have been lucky enough to see this on several occasions in my own systems though the hammers are rarely more than 3-4 months from captivity. In our case (Australia) its always several days after the full moon in April and May(now).

I would say it actually happens quite often most reefers just don't see it because A they don't know when to expect it and B they are not likely to be looking at the tank after lights out.

I suspect scrambler1880 has a colony from Australia, Bali or some ware else in our half of the world and still had its clock ticking as to when to do the deed. Hopefully he can chime back in here at some time.

 

[Zombie Reef]

I was running a lunar controller on my old system when I had it happen.
I had also had an anemone spawn in that tank.
Are you running a lunar cycle?

 

[scrambler1880]

Hammer corals can be male or female, the red balls are eggs. I have seen a few reefers manage to have hammers release eggs in captivity. Never been lucky enough myself though.

The plumes scrambler1880 refers to would be sperm the coral puffs itself up and deflates ejecting a plume of sperm in a rhythmic action every few / 15-20 seconds. I have been lucky enough to see this on several occasions in my own systems though the hammers are rarely more than 3-4 months from captivity. In our case (Australia) its always several days after the full moon in April and May(now).

I would say it actually happens quite often most reefers just don't see it because A they don't know when to expect it and B they are not likely to be looking at the tank after lights out.

I suspect scrambler1880 has a colony from Australia, Bali or some ware else in our half of the world and still had its clock ticking as to when to do the deed. Hopefully he can chime back in here at some time.

Sorry for the delayed response got a little tied up at work today... My hammer is in fact from Australia and was only recently added to the tank, it is quite a large specimen (the skeleton alone is over 12" long) so there was no mistaking the source of the cloud. Because the lights were out I didn't notice any red eggs but the fish sure were nipping at something in the water for a while afterwards...

Thank you everyone for your replies, Kinda cool that I got to see this, I have caught my cleaner shrimp spawning many times but never a coral!! :bigeyes:

 

[scrambler1880]

I was running a lunar controller on my old system when I had it happen.
I had also had an anemone spawn in that tank.
Are you running a lunar cycle?

not exactly a lunar cycle but I do have those new Radion lights ... they mimick the movement and intensity of the sun all day and dim over several hours at night so it is entirely possible the the hammer was responding to the light cycle in some way