hammer shed sweepers??

[ronkent]

i bought an anchor hammer last week....all seemed fine...has fluffed out nicely. well today i was watching its 'mouth' where the tentacles would come out and it actually spit em out! is that normal?? will it grow more?

[ronkent]

well i may have been wrong about it being tentacle sweepers...whatever it is it had more than what it shed....maybe someone could help me out with the anatomy of this type of LPS. There is a bump on the skeleton with a hole in it....basically it opens up and these lil tentacles come out and go right back in....and just keeps doin that over and over. Are these the sweepers or something else....if its something else what is it?

[Cearbhaill]

I think you have a barnacle on your hammer- it is quite common in the Euphyllias.
Does it look like this?
http://www.cearbhaill.com/DSC02388.JPG

[Richard DeChamplain]

more likely your euphylia is expelling excess zooanthelae, ussually occurs late in the day and is brown mucous like material...no worries, just getting a little more light than it was previously

[ronkent]

Cear hit the nail on the head. Went to work today and described to my reefer buddy and he told me barnacle. And now looking at Cear's pick thats exactly what it is. Thanx:)

[Cearbhaill]

Phew!!
I knew there was a simple explanation.

BTW I have never heard of why they are so common on Hammers/torches/frogspawn- but a huge percentage of these corals I've seen have barnacles. Just one of reefings little mysteries.

[ronkent]

was pretty cool seeing the barnacle spit out its old 'hand' tho i will say that....freaked me out tho cuz i thought it was actually part of my hammer!