new addition - hammer.. some questions

[maroon clown]

hi guys, i just got a hammer from my roomate as a present. i had a few questions regarding what to feed it and how much light and current it would like. also, i am posting a pic of it to show the condition it came in, its half full on the rock it came on. the guy at the store told my roomate that it would grow into and fill the rock. i hate when lfs owners lie to sell things... any thoughts or suggestions? thanks

 

[gnx87]

I have had my hammer for about 14 months now and it is thriving, I have him on the sand now with 330w vho lighting, i have had him midway in the water column too, and he likes both places. I give my hammer moderate current and have fed it nothing except the mineral suppliment added to the water like calcium, strotonium, etc. I will take a pic of mine and post it today when i get home. Hope this helps.

 

[Minh Nguyen]

They need enough water movement to sway their tentacles, and bright light. I have mine under MH without any problem (400 W 1 foot from the center about 2 feet down) IME, they can tanke lots of light but need to increase them slowly. Feed them with bits of food daily and they will growth much faster. Ofcourse they need good water quality with low nitrites and phosphates. I don't add anything other than food and Ca and Carbounate to my tank with a Ca reactor.
Good luck

 

[SteveP]

I keep mine on the bottom of the tank (about 20" down, but I'm using 400 watt MH's. The water flow is slow to medium. It's just enough to move the tentacles around. When I bought it two months ago it was about the same size as yours, and it has had noticeable growth as well as three new buds growing on the cloumn!

I feed 3x's a week. Usually freeze dried or frozen krill. It also takes sinking pellet foods. You have to feed these guys to get good growth. Element supplementation alone isn't good enough.

Steve
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[Ben1]

I got mine 11/99. It is a branching hammer with white tips. Very pretty coral which is very easy to care for. If injured these corals are likely to come down with protazoan infections so be carefull. I had mine in my SPS MH system for about a year before moving it to my soft coral system. It has grown much better in the soft coral tank under 3 55watt pc's all the way on the bottom of my 40 tall. It likes a soft current and IMO feeding isnt reqiured. I suppose mine catchs excess fish food but thats about it. Mine just dropped off some new babies recently thru budding. HTH

 

[tetra]

Have mine on the sand in a 55gal. with 2x55pc and 2x96pc. I feed it once a week with raw shrimp. And it has medium flow and doing very well.

 

[gnx87]

as i said above i would show a picture of mine. Well here it is!

Is the Picture there?

[ January 08, 2002: Message edited by: gnx87 ]</p>

 

[Anonymous]

I have mine about 1/2 way up the water column, under 4 36W pc and 1 175 MH and medium current. It has been doing great for over 2 years now (more than doubled in size). I have never directly fed mine, but I do feed phyto's so I am sure it gets some of that as well as bits of the fish foods. Just as Ben said they can get infections, so be careful it handling because the skelatal base is very sharp as you can see from your piece. I wish I had gottten the branching type so I could frag it since he is now getting a little too large for some close tankmates.