You have to keep one more
thing in mind when it comes
to placement, though. The
bottom of the regular hammer
coral’s skeleton is oftentimes
exposed and not covered with
living tissue, so a specimen
typically cannot produce new
skeletal material at its base and
can’t grow onto the substrate
the way that cuttings from
small-polyped stony corals
can. To better explain, typically
if a piece of a small-polyped
stony coral, like Acropora, is
made it can be affi xed to the
substrate and will then start
to overgrow the glue or epoxy
used to mount it in place. This
leads to the formation of a
sturdy based of attachment
that increases in size as the
whole colony increases in
size. To the contrary, a regular
hammer coral typically cannot
do so, and needs to be epoxied
in place very well to prevent
it from breaking away or
getting knocked loose by a
fi sh, snail, etc. in the future.
This is especially true for the
branching hammer, as the
bottoms of the branches are
never covered with living
tissue and thus can’t overgrow
the epoxy and surrounding
substrate, either. So, stick them
in place with plenty of epoxy.
It’s also important to note
that if you want to feed either
of these corals, they’ll take
essentially anything meaty that
you provide. Using a turkey
baster or needle-less syringe to
spot feed them brine and mysis
shrimp, small bits of chopped
fi sh, clam, or squid, etc. works
well, and I even had a huge
hammer coral several years ago
that would eat little guppies.
Pouring in small doses of fi ner
foods like copepods and rotifers
works well too. However, I do
have to say that under good
tank conditions these corals
typically fare just fi ne without
being given any of these foods.
As far as negatives go, their
potential size and the length
of their tentacles can be
problematic at times, and
they can also produce extra-
long fi ghting tentacles called
sweepers. These specialised
tentacles aren’t always present,
but when they develop they
can extend several centimetres
further than the normal
tentacles, greatly expanding
the danger zone around a
specimen. These also carry a
greater number of stinging
cells, so they can certainly
be a real problem for other
nearby corals on occasion.
As mentioned above, for
some reason these seem to
be produced with greater
frequency when currents are
strong, so reducing the fl ow a
bit, or moving a specimen to an
area with lower fl ow, can often
help to keep them at bay.
These corals and the other
members of the genus are
prone to collection and
shipping-related problems too.
For one, specimens of regular
hammers are often cut or
broken from a larger colony,
which means their tissue has
been cut or torn. Likewise,
their skeletons are topped
with relatively large and sharp
structures called septa, and
a specimen can cut itself up
to some degree on these
structures if banged around in
a bag during transport.
While many other types of
coral usually recover from
being cut or broken, such
injuries often lead to problems
for hammers with the most
common being a brown-jelly
infection. This is an attack
on the injured fl esh by an
assortment of microorganisms
that causes the aff ected area
to basically turn into a brown
glob of slime. To make matters
worse the condition can start
in a very small area but then
spread rapidly and kill an entire
colony in a matter of hours
in the worst cases. However,
Typical example of hammer-like tentacles.
80 http://www.ultramarinemagazine.co.uk
