Hammer/GSP/Anemone Tips

ReefyMcReefleFace · Jul 31, 2025

Looking to buy my first two corals. Going to go with some GSP to make a GSP wall on the back of my tank, and then maybe some sort of anemone or a hammer.

Does anyone have any tips or recommendations for these corals? I'm super excited and have had my tank for over a month now and it's all started up with live rock and sand, pair of clowns, mandarin, and the CUC.

PPBlimpy · Jul 31, 2025

skip the anemone for a while. generally suggested to have a well established tank 9-12months

the GSP is a great first coral. grows like weeds and looks great. hammer is another good candidate as long as lighting is good.

regarding your mandarin- is it eating frozen food or pellet? are you supplementing pods? that is also a fish that generally needs a well established tank that has a large pod population or they can starve to death.

You also do not mention tank size. With the mandarin i have never personally kept one in a tank smaller then 75g unless i was adding a bottle of pods every month and that got expensive. have never had a mandarin that ate pellet or frozen brine

BryanM · Jul 31, 2025

Yep. Skip the nem, tank is way too new.

You'll want to read up on that mandarin, they are not the easist fish to care for or get eating.

ReefyMcReefleFace · Jul 31, 2025

BryanM said:
Yep. Skip the nem, tank is way too new.

You'll want to read up on that mandarin, they are not the easist fish to care for or get eating.

I was lucky enough to find one that eats frozen, so he's been eating similar food to my clowns as well as frozen copepods. I'll do more research into the nem. Thanks

ReefyMcReefleFace · Jul 31, 2025

PPBlimpy said:
skip the anemone for a while. generally suggested to have a well established tank 9-12months

the GSP is a great first coral. grows like weeds and looks great. hammer is another good candidate as long as lighting is good.

regarding your mandarin- is it eating frozen food or pellet? are you supplementing pods? that is also a fish that generally needs a well established tank that has a large pod population or they can starve to death.

You also do not mention tank size. With the mandarin i have never personally kept one in a tank smaller then 75g unless i was adding a bottle of pods every month and that got expensive. have never had a mandarin that ate pellet or frozen brine

The one I got from my LFS is already eating frozen. Watched him eat in the store and I guess they only sell ones that are eating frozen.

But I will definitely be getting the GSP, thanks for the tips!