Hammer help

[jacobm]

I bought a small colony of hammer coral. it has about 4 heads. when i placed in my tank i can only get 2 of the heads really good light. and the head on the bottom is shaded. That shaded heads "tentacles" have gotton REALLY long. Is that how it dies or is it just reaching for light? will it die or will it adjust?

Also when keeping hammers how much flow should i have? the tentacles should be moving very little right?

I was told there was 2 diff types of hammer. One that grows like a candy cane and another. could anyone explain please?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Stu Pickles]

It is a moderate light/moderate flow coral. You have a branching hammer, the other would be a wall hammer. Sounds like it should be fine. The tentacles stretch for light.

 

[jacobm]

Thanks u pickles! i have both types but the wall just looks like one head . both grow rather slowly like candy cane??

 

[willietang021]

The branching hammer, they grow by splitting, and you will have another head. They grow pretty quick if condition is right. I have a 2 heads frags ba couple of years ago. Within 3 years it grew to 27 heads.

The other type is a wall hammer, to me, the wall is more Fragile. Because their skeleton is so sharp and their tissue is so thin. If the flow is too strong or anything such as a piece of rock or another piece of coral fell on it. It will cut itself up and may damage that part of the coral. Once a part of a wall hammer is damage, the tissue will continue to die off until the whole thing is dead if left untreated. But the branch hammer, will only lose that head instead of the whole colony.

If they extend their tentacles, they are doing fine. If the bottom two heads are extending their tentacles more than the two heads above, they are just reaching for the lights. No worry, but if they start losing color or the tentacles start to shrink, move it so all four heads receive good lights!

 

[jacobm]

thank you for explaining that to me! And the only problem i would have is i glued that colony to a large rock xD....

 

[jacobm]

What do u dose your tank for the growth? other then calcium?

 

[rhdoug]

Other than calcium and alkalinity, you shouldn't have to dose anything. Magnesium is supposedly helpful as well, and I do dose it. but I didn't for years and everything did fine then without it. It will appreciate some food particles or sometimes small pieces of mysis shrimp, etc. That being said, I have never actually seen mine eat anything, but it must eat something to grow from 2 heads to this... and this has been fragged multiple times over the years.