C26 - Hammer Teal

Hammer:

Quick Stats:

-          Lighting: Low to Moderate

-          Flow: Moderate  

-          Placement: Middle

-          Feeding: Photosynthetic

-          Aggressiveness: Aggressive

Characteristics:  Euphyllia ancora (reclassified to Frimbriaphyllia ancora) are highly recognisable due to their hammer shaped polyps earning them the name hammer corals. They can extend their polyps out a fair ways from their skeleton or retract them to show only their hammer shaped tips depending on the flow and lighting they receive. They typically come in two forms branching and wall. The only difference would be in the shape of the skeleton where wall hammers form a continuous wall and branching hammers spread out in different directions.

Colour:  Hammer corals come in a variety of colours ranging from fluorescent greens, to bright oranges, with most of their colours concentrated on the tips of their polyps. Some specimens exhibit colours mostly on the stems of their polyps and some even come in two-toned or three-toned colours.

Lighting:  These corals appreciate low to moderate lighting anywhere from about 30 – 100 PAR. There have been observations that in dimmer lighting the corals extend their polyps more, but under intense lighting their colours appear more strongly.

Flow: They appreciate moderate flow and they look more stunning with their tentacles swaying about in the current.

Placement: They can be placed anywhere from the bottom to the middle of the tank but far away from other corals as their tentacles can extend very far and they are very aggressive. Though hammer corals can be grouped together as they don’t seem to sting each other.

Feeding: Hammer corals are mostly photosynthetic but do appreciate some feeding though finding the right food can be tricky for them.