hammer and leather

[ElitePirate]

Hi Friends

So recently I bought my 2nd golden hammer. it's opening up now. the thing is right next to that hammer i have a leather coral. in another month or so my hammer will grow/open up fully and I'm worried if its gonna attack my leather coral. Should I relocate my coral? but I dont have any other suitable place to place them..

is it ok to leave them like this?

 

[Hitman]

I would move it as hammers will also send out sweepers at night and sting the leather. Personally I keep all my euphyllia corals at least 6” away from anything else.

 

[ElitePirate]

hm i dont have that much space, but ill try to move them around.

 

[Hitman]

What size tank?
You can keep Hammers and Frogspawn right next to each other in fact touching if need be, but even though Torches are in the euphyllia family do not let them touch Hammers or Frogspawn as they will fight and the Torches usually win.
I know tank size may be different but here’s what I did.
Far left 24”x24” all anemones, enter left 24”x24” all euphyllia, center right 24”x24” all my SPS, far right 24”x24” all my leathers.

 

[ElitePirate]

mine is very small. just a 15 US gallon tank haha

already removed dotty back and wrasse coz of bioload so im trying to decorate the tank with nice hard corals

 

[Katrina71]

You could move your hammer down to the first ledge directly below where it is now. Almost on the sandbed.

 

[ElitePirate]

alrighty. just a quick question, can i keep it in the sand bed? upright?

 

[Hitman]

Actually the leather you have would do better down low as long as it gets plenty of flow in my opinion. I have all mine on the sand bed with a return and powerhead pointed to reflect off the glass to give them powerful random flow. Most not all but most leathers like a moderately strong flow and moderate light intensity. From what I see in the last pic you posted, everything you have likes water on the dirty side.

 

[Hitman]

The Dotty Backs I’ve had grew up to be jerks, so no complaints there, but no way would I get rid of a Wrasse! Lol They are a great pest hunter. Look into a Yellow Coris Wrasse as they stay on the smaller side and love to hunt and will sleep in your sand bed and will share food with your Clowns. At least mine dose. All 7 of my Clowns protect my Yellow Coris Wrasse at night when my Groupers are out hunting.

 

[ElitePirate]

i had a six line Wrasse. the thing is my bioload was very high. Had 5 fishes. so had to cut down 2.

 

[Hitman]

I understand. It’s hard to do but sometimes you gotta do it.

 

[ElitePirate]

yea noob mistake. got all excited and bought a lot of fishes LOL

 

[SkinnyMcGinny]

I have a big hammer colony (18 inches across, probably 70-80 heads, it's like a watermelon!). As it has grown, it has gotten more aggressive. It used to play nice with frog spawn next to it, but now even that getting attacked. Based on your photo, you have time. But they do grow. I love m hammer colony, it looks spectacular, but it is def is not peaceful these days. It's devoured a a few corals.

 

[SkinnyMcGinny]

One other thought -- my hammer has been my most bulletproof coral. It's been in filthy water, clean water, high light, low light, etc... it's always done well. I suspect you could put it almost anywhere in your tank and it would do okay. If the the flow is too high, it retracts, but other than that it's a trooper.

 

[ElitePirate]

One other thought -- my hammer has been my most bulletproof coral. It's been in filthy water, clean water, high light, low light, etc... it's always done well. I suspect you could put it almost anywhere in your tank and it would do okay. If the the flow is too high, it retracts, but other than that it's a trooper.

thank you can share your hammer colony pictures? I'd love to see them

 

[ElitePirate]

update -

so i moved my hammer to the sand bed (with a rock base of course) and it's nicely sitting there.. lets see

 

[SkinnyMcGinny]

I don't see why that wouldn't work fine. Re: photo, sorry have not mastered uploading pics of my own tank yet. Need one of my kids to show me how. btw, I was just looking at it, and my hammer colony is winning wars on three fronts: a pagoda cup, an orange Pavona, and the adjacent frogspawn are all being eaten. The hammer attacks in the middle of the day, when the lights are bright. The hammer just seems to extend some it's polyps, makes them much longer and stringy-er, and they reach out and latch on the adjacent corals... That's only starting happening in the last year. I've had this colony probably five+ years. It's one of my favorites, and big crowd pleaser...