hammer and torch

[jenajet]

I have a torch coral and a hammer. I have seen in some post that they have sweeper tenticles that roam at night and to this day that has never happened. At night they both retract completely into their shells. Is this normal? Plus the hammer has never expanded to origional size from lfs.

Tank
24 gal aquapod with 64 watts pc lighting
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
ph 8 I think got to get new test cause colors are so close I
cant tell

Hammer is in bottom with very little flow and torch is in middle with medium sometimes heavy flow

[Twitterbait]

the changing conditions from the lfs have probably caused the change in behavoir. Most of the torches and hammers i have seen retract during the night so that sounds ok to me.

[Waynesworld]

they should retract some, not too much. I have seen some fragspawn that never extend feeder tentacles

[thekid55]

mine come out in the day some times. but i do think it took a while to come out

[jeffwt]

Originally Posted by jenajet

Plus the hammer has never expanded to origional size from lfs.

Hi Jena,

What light was it under at the LFS.
I've had a hammer for 14 months now under a 150W halide.
For the first year it showed great polyp extension and has grown quite a bit.
The last 2 months however it hasn't looked too good - polyps not extending that much with some not inflated at all.
I put this down to high (50) nitrates that I'm battling at the moment.
Anyway, I knew I was (over)due to change the bulb which i did at the weekend.
I got a pleasant surprise when I got home from work on Monday to find it back to it's former glory - all polyps fully extended again.
I figure from this that light can be an important factor in polyp extension.

Cheers,

Jeff (UK)

[Loverotties]

Theey both like Light and good flow at least med flow.

[jdbassin]

hammers, torches, frogspawn, the entire euphyllia family is sensitive to phosphates tends to make them decline then die off from brown jelly disease. learned that the hard way, might wanna check that, just my .02


jd

[jenajet]

Dont have phosphate test kit but keep a phosphate remover that I change once a month. The lfs checks when I go in. Torch is doing well as are the other corals. He had finally began to open when I had to tear down the tank to get a sick fish. It is under 64 watt pc lighting and seems to prefer practically no flow what so ever and that is a problem because the other corals love flow and cant seem to get ph so that flow isnt aggitating the hammer. Several of the heads are splitting which I believe is the main reason for it not opening as much. The more it splits the more it opens.

[Twitterbait]

they like just enough flow to keep things moving. otherwise lighting should be kept good... but not too bright.

[Dagrape]

I don't have a hammer or torch but I find that if I feed my brain corals at night when just my actinics are on they tend to extend there sweeper tenticles. then I can give them a bit of meaty food.

MMMMMMMMMM Dinner time!

[jenajet]

I quit trying to feed these guys, it just aggravated them. They both close up at night so that would work. Thanks for the advice tho.

[thekid55]

i never feed mine. but if i would ever do i turn of the powerhead.

[Jflip2002]

The LFS probably has em under MHs Id imagine. IVe experienced that with my flower pots, they were about a good 10" in diameter, it was mammoth there. Now its about 60% of that size, under my 192w.

My new Torch's sweepers are out right now, it is about 10% expanded, and all the lights have been off for a few hours.

[Kullas]

Can the hammer be kept under PC?

[thekid55]

yes