Will Hammers sting other Hammers or Torches

[HeadleesSon]

Can I keep many Hammers of different colors close to each other? How about keeping a Hammer and a Torch near each other?

 

[Azedenkae]

Hammers and hammers, no.

At least not in my experience.

 

[TangingOut]

I keep two different hammers together just fine. I got the idea from an lfs that had 4-5 hammers on the same rock. He called it his 4th of july piece, it was pretty awesome with a gold hammer in the middle. I think torches are the ones you want to keep away from others.

 

[HeadleesSon]

Cool, that is kind of what I was thinking of doing. Taking one small head from a few colors and letting them grow together like a colony.

 

[Reef Frog]

Not to hijack, but will a hammer sting it's cousin, a Frogspawn, or vice versa? What if they grow in such a way as the polyps begin to touch each other on a regular basis?

 

[davidadelp]

I've got a torch, frogspawn and a hammer all together and they all touch at times and it doesn't bother any of them

 

[menglish]

me too. I have hammer and frogsawn together. they are all over each other. No problems

 

[pyithar]

i have hammer and frogspawn together and they're ok. but the hammer tried to sting the torch when i placed them together.

 

[Reef Frog]

Great. Thanks for the confirmations. Always wanted one but was running out of space, except right next to my Frogspawn. I have an excellent coral specialist in town and they get some very nice hammers and now I'll be hunting for one. I like that 4th of July idea. May try that on a smaller scale.

-I assume their lighting & flow needs are the same as a Frogspawn? Is that accurate?

-I plan on mounting it on the vertical face of live rock, not the top? OK?

-I've read on this forum that the "branching"' variety is not hardy, even difficult to keep alive. Is this really the case? If so I want to avoid them and hope the manager can distinguish them. Comments appreciated.

 

[Lmax8rn]

I find the branching type easy to keep, and I'm no expert. I have read the wall corals are harder to keep.

 

[TangingOut]

Yeah, I've always read that walls are difficult and branching are easy/hardy.

 

[Azedenkae]

I don't suggest mounting them vertically, as hammers can really spread out their tentacles. The lower ones could be shaded.

 

[pyithar]

ime, wall hammers grow very slow. branching hammers are easier.

 

[m0nkie]

for me... hammer and torch must be separated. They did not like each other.

Frogspawn i keep veerry far away from hammer. Iono why but all my hammers next to frogspawn grew into frogspawn shape. Less hammer like tip, more round balls

 

[m0nkie]

It's not that branching is hardier, it's just easier to remove a dying head. This will save all the other branching heads. A wall hammer will die completely unless you treat it well

Wall hammers have much better looking colors than branching

 

[Tweaked]

Hammers and Frogs ok directly touching. Torches need wide birth to everything in your tank, hence the name.

 

[Reef Frog]

Got mixed up apparantly. So branching are the more bullet proof variety. Thanks for the clarification.

It seems to me by looking at photos the polyps and colorations available are about the same. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The space I hope to use should allow me to mount it at a 45 degree angle and I think it should get enough light, as my frogspawn is in a similar position and it's doing fine. Thanks again for the good advice.

 

[Julio44]

How about different type of torches? Can they be placed close to each other? Or will they sting each other. For example a gold torch and a green torch. Thanks for any input.

 

[m0nkie]

How about different type of torches? Can they be placed close to each other? Or will they sting each other. For example a gold torch and a green torch. Thanks for any input.

I have 5 different colored torches together. they are fine

 

[aquascapelove]

From everything I've read about the Euphylid family of corals Frogspawn and Hammer do very well together for most people. But they're seeming to be the only ones any of the others need their space or they get aggressive. Most are good neighboring their own though like torches together etc. Torches seem to be the most aggressive of the group needing to be away from all the other species. Good thing to keep in mind is how long their tentacles get because even if they look small when pulled in they're likely twice that And need lots of room from other neighbors. I love all the species in this family of coral but they are pretty aggressive with their sweeper tentacles so I'd keep eyes on them for a while make sure yours get along well.

Walls Vs Branching like others have said comes down to being able to frag off the dying heads... Problems with Walls mostly come from the fragging process and shipping because a hard shipping sometimes they cut themselves on their skeletons and get infections that look a lot like brown jelly.

(Did massive amounts of research and studying trying to save my wall frogspawn from an infection caused by being bumped a little hard by our urchin.)