Coral of the month June 08 Hammer Coral

Daniel072 · 06-01-2008, 09:49 PM

Hammer Coral
(euphyllia ancora)

Forms fairly large colonies. Skeletons grow in a meandering fashion. Polyps have long tubular tentacles with Hammer, anchor or T-shaped tips. Color is usually orange, with lighter colored edges to the tips of the polyps. Similar to and related to Torch Coral and Frogspawn coral. Can be differentiated by the anchor or T-shape of the end of the tentacles.
Common Names: Hammer, Anchor

Hardiness: Hammer coral is fairly hardy once established in the aquarium
Lighting: Requires moderate to strong lighting.
Water Current: Hammer corals prefer low to moderate water motion.
Temperature: Does well within a range of at least 75º to 84º F
Aggressiveness: High. Hammer coral can expand considerably from its skeleton and has sweeper tentacles that are up to 2" longer than normal tentacles that can sting neighbors. Hammer corals grow fairly quickly and to a large size, so they do best in larger reef tanks. They can be kept in contact with others in the same family such as frogspawn coral.
Feeding: Hammer coral is photosynthetic and does not need to be directly fed, but will take small meaty foods that are offered.
Supplements: Maintaining correct calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium levels is important for skeletal development
Tank Positioning: Best positioning is a low to moderate water flow area where it has room to expand

Bogie · 06-01-2008, 09:53 PM

Great job on first time for COTM!

Daniel072 · 06-01-2008, 09:55 PM

this one sorry

missionsix · 06-01-2008, 10:02 PM

Nice job on COTM Daniel. I'll share mine. I hate taking pics with a flash, but, don't have a choice in this section of my tank. Got 1 hammer and 1 F-spawn.