Self fragging hammer

uhgster1 · Aug 10, 2019

Well it’s confirmed (by me anyway)! Hammer coral can and will self frag. It took about two months from the time I noticed it anyway. It started with what looked like a misshapen tentacle missing the “hammer” tip. Someone on the forum told me the hammer was fragging itself so I let it be. Today it dropped off by itself and I scooped it up. I thought that it was going to be all jelly like but that stalk actually has a sliver of skeleton like a vein going through it. I put it on a rock with some glue and there you go! A new baby hammer. It’d be nice if my torch did the same! It was completely open when I scooped it up so hopefully tomorrow I’ll get a better pic when the lights come back on!

King Turkey · Aug 11, 2019

I thought they do that when they are stressed out. usually when they split they first create a bubble. I could have recalled the situation wrong..

uhgster1 · Aug 11, 2019

uhgster1 said:
Well it’s confirmed (by me anyway)! Hammer coral can and will self frag. It took about two months from the time I noticed it anyway. It started with what looked like a misshapen tentacle missing the “hammer” tip. Someone on the forum told me the hammer was fragging itself so I let it be. Today it dropped off by itself and I scooped it up. I thought that it was going to be all jelly like but that stalk actually has a sliver of skeleton like a vein going through it. I put it on a rock with some glue and there you go! A new baby hammer. It’d be nice if my torch did the same! It was completely open when I scooped it up so hopefully tomorrow I’ll get a better pic when the lights come back on!

I’ve seen what you’re talking about. That bubble usually precedes a head splitting. This was different. The mother coral is in excellent shape. This was literally a new polyp growing from a tentacle. I’ve seen budding before too and this wasn’t even close to the main body of the polyp. I wish I had documented it a little better.

slee · Nov 24, 2019

uhgster1 said:
Well it’s confirmed (by me anyway)! Hammer coral can and will self frag. It took about two months from the time I noticed it anyway. It started with what looked like a misshapen tentacle missing the “hammer” tip. Someone on the forum told me the hammer was fragging itself so I let it be. Today it dropped off by itself and I scooped it up. I thought that it was going to be all jelly like but that stalk actually has a sliver of skeleton like a vein going through it. I put it on a rock with some glue and there you go! A new baby hammer. It’d be nice if my torch did the same! It was completely open when I scooped it up so hopefully tomorrow I’ll get a better pic when the lights come back on!

My hammer grew a small polyp and one day dissapearred and I later found it attached to a frag plug that was on the bottom of the tank. A new polyp is growing on the stem of the main hammer but found it fascinating to see!