Hammer Coral

[sands of time]

We were just wondering... last night we finally got the hammer coral we have been eyeing for a while and watching it at the lfs... is there any specfic way to care for a hammer (ie. does it need to be high, low, in flow, away from flow etc...) please help it's a beautiful piece and we want to give it all we can!!

Thank you!!!:confused:

[daddypugg]

Congrats on the hammer! They are a really nice coral.

I keep mine in moderate flow under, I don't do anything special for it other than keep water quality up.


Here is some more info (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?pCatId=1645)

[sands of time]

thank you... yes they are a very nice piece. We have him placed about 5-6 in from a pagoda cup and another 5-6 from a set of brown polyps. Will it be okay???

thanks for your help!

[daddypugg]

"will it be ok?" Good question. I am not familiar with Pagoda Cup. As far as the Hammer goes, I haven't seen any sweeper tenticles (yet) from my hammer.

I would just keep an eye on everything, maybe study the tank after lights out to see if you can see anyting going on.

[sands of time]

during acclimation it was already opening up... we also got a yellow watchman goby... the guy from the lfs (we've known him for 15 years) says it would be an excellent addition to the tank (he says he's like an engineer... what does he mean??)

[daddypugg]

Not sure what he means by "engineer". they do have a tendancy (sp?) to dig, maybe that his what he meant.

I too have YWG and absolutely love him. He used to dig alot but has since found a nice cave to call home and doesn't dig much anymore.

[sands of time]

Well he does look very interesting to say the least and I love the small baby blue spots on him ...I think for awhile I wont see him amongst all the rock work we have in there my only concern is we have a dootyback and gets abit aggressive with new fish from time too time so will have to watch carefull fir that,he thinks he owns the tank or something ha ah.

[xtrstangx]

As far as the hammer, just keep the water quality high and they do best under moderate flow, IME.

For the YWG, by "engineer" that means he will dig around and move around the sand. He's not a true sand-sifting goby though, he's a shrimp goby (they pair with certain shrimps and the shrimp does the digging for them)

[sands of time]

Cool ,the water quality we have is great we never had any issues with water quality to this day thank god!!!

yeah he is under moderate flow and about half way down the tank...thxs guys you have been a great help..

another quick thing the polyps we had for about about two weeks did not open up at all.then the other day I put them to the higest spot in the tank and they started to peek out nicely yesterday. I guess they just didnt like the spot I guess??

[Rivalpc]

Engineer goby or convict goby i believe. Eel like body does alot of digging under rocks, I mean a lot of digging. Mine is about 6-7 inches long. http://www.wetwebmedia.com/pholodichthyidae.htm

I have several hammers, they are great and easy to care for. keep it in moderate flow or slightly greater, needs room to expand, several colors and the clowns love them. The only thing to watch out for crabs nipping at them if they dont get enough food. Had one crab destroy a nice branching hammer by nipping at the base of the soft parts.

[sands of time]

thxs for the info,I have had a problem with the crabs alreday to some degree,not the blue leg hermits but the bigger reg leg ones they are getting bigger and for some reason love to dig even in the polps and other corals we have,the bigger ones I may take back and get smaller ones the shells alone are dragging threw everythhing and causing issues..