Happy Hammer ??

[intenseimage]

Background info ... 22 gallon cube with 150w Sunpod ... hammer is low in the sand but the polyps are not touching the sand. The current in the tank gives some movement but doesnt blow it away.

When I first got the hammer in March it looked like this ...

Now a few months later ...

Just wondering why it doesnt look like all of the other hammer pics I see (with polys that form nice curves) since this is more "bubbles"? Is it not happy?

Also, will a hammer take mysis? When feeding my sixline I placed a few mysis on the hammer and it didnt react at all.

At night it deflates and tucks back into its skeleton and as soon as the sun comes up and starts to hit the tank a bit, out it comes again. And the sexy shrimp LOVES to perch on and under it as well.

 

[Pekkle99]

Looks like a frogspawn to me, you might want to raise it higher to get it to come out more.

 

[intenseimage]

When I first got it I posted to ask if it was FS or Hammer since I wasnt sure ... everyone said Hammer (or at least a hybrid of the 2)

Its only maybe 18 inches down under 150w ... how far up should it be?

 

[woodywoo]

Its a Frogspawn. I have one a 20x that size and growing.

 

[critmin]

Frogspawn and hammer are common names that only describe a characteristic of the coral. Actually there are several euphyllia species that are collectively called hammer corals and there are a couple euphyllia species that are collectively called frogspawn. Generally euphyllia divisa and paradivisa are called frogspawn. However, paradivisa has a hammer like shape and so is an overlap that is also referred to as a hammer coral. Your coral is a paradivisa. "True" hammer corals are euphyllia ancora or parancora.

 

[lizardking38]

I agree with critmin for identification.

It does not look unhappy, but if you want it to expand more, you will need to move it out of the sand. The polyps will get irritated if they rub against the sand in the flow.

I have both e. ancora and e. divisa and they are both in the bottom half of my rockwork. I have metal halides over my tank and they are growing and expanding quickly.

As for feeding, my "frogspawn" does not take the mysis when feeding my fish, but it devours the chopped up bits of shrimp it give it. My FS has much smaller mouths than my hammer does. Try feeding your FS smaller bits of meaty food.

Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[Sk8r]

The key is that visible tentacle that has another 'bud' on it. Hammer doesn't do that. And frogspawn can expand like that. It will like being up in the rockwork. Mine is sitting 8 inches under mh 250 after a prolonged [3 month] acclimation at 15 inches, and is high color and very expanded. You may see other 'daughter' buds appear near the neck.

 

[nm354]

its a frogspawn