Your hammer coral location(s)

oceana

Active Member
your right it is lol sorry i read the hammer part but for somreason my mind shifted it to frogspawn lol. oh well just pretend its a hammer lol.
 

wax32

Active Member
I keep my hammer on the tank bottom under 300w of VHO in my 29 and it is doing well.
http://www.zooxanthellae.com
Wall Hammer, Euphyllia ancora

This was my first coral. It's actually an older picture, I'll have to get a more recent one taken! :D
 

wax32

Active Member
I dunno where he got his, but my LFS sells them for $35 all the time unless they are HUGE, then they are $50.
 

speg

Active Member
Originally Posted by searadier
where did you get a hammer coral for 32 bucks
There is a LFS here just starting out and they picked the most horrible location to set up a shop ever.. almost impossible to see from the road unless you already know it is there.. my brother found it and let me know about it. They have a lot of nice crap for really good prices.. I wish I could show you a pic of the hammer coral I have, its about 8-10 inches long with florescent green/tan tentacles - 32 dollars.
A lot of other things i'd like to take home with me as well... they would be too big for my tank though :p the hammer I have is really larger than I like most corals to be... was considering taking it back.. one day I shall post more pics... one day.
 

motohead

Member
i have two peices of hammer.one is toward the bottom of the tank and one is at the top under 330 watts of vhos.no difference in expansion or health,both are going strong.also a couple of shots of my spawn,it is about as big around as a 16 inch softball.some shots i have algae on the glass so not so clear,never said i was a photographer.haha.the last shot is one of the side the spawn is on,you can kinda get an idea how large it is by comparison to the area it takes up in the tank. :happy:




 

shawnts106

Member
I have a small Orange Hammer and it seems to do better at the top of my tank
if thats your Hammer you dont have a Hammer coral.. youve got an Anchor Coral... they are EXTREMLY simular to Hammers except the anchor coral has more of a curl to its "hammers" or "anchors" than that of a hammer coral
Scientific name : Euphillia Ancora
:), very beautiful specimen you have... I love the Ancoras and Hammers!!! :)
 

shawnts106

Member
motohead
the last 2 pictures of your hammer coral.. the green one.. that is a hybrid speices between hammers and frogspawns... these arent very common!!! concider yourself lucky! :)
 

reefnut

Active Member
Originally Posted by shawnts106
if thats your Hammer you dont have a Hammer coral.. youve got an Anchor Coral... they are EXTREMLY simular to Hammers except the anchor coral has more of a curl to its "hammers" or "anchors" than that of a hammer coral
Scientific name : Euphillia Ancora
:), very beautiful specimen you have... I love the Ancoras and Hammers!!! :)
Dude, that's the same coral just under different "common names". The coral pictured is in fact a hammer...
 

motohead

Member
Originally Posted by shawnts106
the last 2 pictures of your hammer coral.. the green one.. that is a hybrid speices between hammers and frogspawns... these arent very common!!! concider yourself lucky! :)
hmmmm,really?sometimes i look at it and the tips are just a tad like a hammer.other times it looks like spawn.hybrid huh?cool.........
 

shawnts106

Member
My hammer loves the middle tank under 2x250w MH. See!
No you have an Anchor coral...
Dude, that's the same coral just under different "common names". The coral pictured is in fact a hammer...
No, this is not the same coral.... it is different and no these are not related common names
Anchor Corals: Euphillia Ancora
Hammer Corals: Euphillia Fimbriata, Euphillia Parancora <-- depends on what specific species
often times the scientific names get crossed over to the commons resulting in confusion between speices.... this is no ones fault... just confusion!
hmmmm,really?sometimes i look at it and the tips are just a tad like a hammer.other times it looks like spawn.hybrid huh?cool.........
yup, very neat... in fact I have seen a few of these... they are awsome... a prized peice!
 

ophiura

Active Member
Hmmmm....apparently you and Borneman disagree.
From a 1997 paper - (I've seen him repeat it in 2002 - but do not have his fine book in my possession, so perhaps he retracts this):
The most well known Euphyllia is what is commonly called hammer or anchor coral. The species is Euphyllia ancora. Although it is still commonly given the species name of E. fimbriata, this is a now extinct designation.
(1) Oddly enough, there are references in taxonomic literature to a feature that was thought to be a species difference between ancora and fimbriata. Classification of corals is based predominantly on skeletal characteristics, although living tissue can and does play a role in some classifications.
(2) This feature was that fimbriata species had T-shaped tentacle or polyp ends while ancora's were curved, or anchor shaped. While differences occasionally exist even within the same specimen, there is a very distinct pattern of examples with both end types. The polyps of all species can be either brown, greenish or slightly pinkish, with variations of the three common even within the same example

The different tentacle shapes appear to be considered polymorphisms, and not species specific characteristics. Euphyllia paraencora has different skeletal morphology from ancora, and thus is considered a separate and valid species.
I am not a coral expert but I've known a few ("its their job" coral guys), and there are definite limitations to the use of "soft tissue" morphology as species specific characteristics. I can look at some of my guys and see changes from day to day in some cases. I would buy that the hammer might be a variant of the anchor...whatever that means in taxonomy.
Anyway, I am sure he could be wrong, but after all of those extensive years
of research on corals and their care...I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt.
 

shawnts106

Member
The different tentacle shapes appear to be considered polymorphisms, and not species specific characteristics. Euphyllia paraencora has different skeletal morphology from ancora, and thus is considered a separate and valid species.
I am not a coral expert but I've known a few ("its their job" coral guys), and there are definite limitations to the use of "soft tissue" morphology as species specific characteristics. I can look at some of my guys and see changes from day to day in some cases. I would buy that the hammer might be a variant of the anchor...whatever that means in taxonomy.
Anyway, I am sure he could be wrong, but after all of those extensive years of research on corals and their care...I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt.

WOW!!! that sounded really smart!!!..
ok, So anyway.. as Orph pointed out from his/her research... there is a difference... however really when it all gets down to the nitty/gritty... its a hammer/achor coral :) haha
 

reefnut

Active Member
Nice explanation ophiura!!
The Hammer and anchor hammer is the same species... that's the nitty/gritty!!
 

ophiura

Active Member
Just to clarify - Its not my research, just my interpretation of Borneman's comments from a taxonomists perspective, and assuming that his statement (regarding fimbriata) is true. If Borneman's assertion that E. fimbriata is no longer a valid species (which should be published somewhere), then that means there were apparently no "skeletal" differences between it and E. ancora, which are the primary characteristics in coral taxonomy. Just looking at individuals specimens of either of these shows rather broad differences in tentacle tips, coloration, etc especially variable in different environments and tanks, and are therefor not informative characteristics anywhere else but in the hobby. We rely on common names, and then color morphs within those common names. That is fine, but it may be limited to the hobby. The same issue comes up in the hobby with the artificial distinction between serpentstars and brittlestars.
 

ags

Member
I have my hammer on the bottom, inches from the sand, in a 90 gallon tank with 660 watts of VHO. Moderate to high current.
 
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