Hammer (wall) Polyps "forked"

[John.unlimited]

My hammer coral's polyps are "forking". They are forking on the the lower half of the coral where there is is less light.
I have also seen two small pieces of green polyps floating around with no empty sockets. Can this be some sort of reproduction? If so can I help the little polyps attach to something and begin a skeleton?

24 gal nano with PCs
Water looks perfect
PH 8.1
salt 1.025
calcium 400
nitrates 0
phosphates 0
No algae problems except coaline algae

[Mr.Peanut]

I have a hammer in my 75 that started with 4 seperate heads. Now, about 4 months later, there are 7 heads. 3 of the 4 heads split. The total size of the expanded hammer stayed the same for a little while, now its growing larger.

[John.unlimited]

I've read a lot about branching hammers but never about wall type. Mine is a wall type. Anyone see a wall hammer polyps fork?

[aquawolf]

That is interesting and I would really like to see a picture of it if you could attach one. The wall hammer has to have some way to reproduce as well, and since it will not build a new branch it may throw a few polyps out in hopes of colonizing. I do not have any direct experience with this though.

[John.unlimited]

Here is a pic of one of the "forked" polyps. Could not draw on the pic but was able to remove the color from all but the polyp in question. Any ideas?

[wharyat]

The little hammers are tentacles, the entire animal (the whole of the flesh attached to the skeleton) is the polyp.

Completely normal. My hammer has many forked tentacles. Some of them are forked in 3 and 4.

Wall type hammers will also naturally split polyps. Generally they are very large (3') before that happens.

[John.unlimited]

This thing is going to that big one day?

[aquawolf]

The picture helps a lot as that is not what I was envisioning. That is perfectly normal. In fact, I have a branching hammer that sometimes when I take close up pictures some sections look more like a frog spawn.

If the conditions are right it will continue to grow and 3 inches should be an easy size to attain. You need to be aware of placing other corals too close to it though as it has sweeper tentacles it will send out to sting them as a defense.

[crvz]

Originally Posted by John.unlimited

This thing is going to that big one day?

with good care it can, but 3 feet (not inches, AW ) will take a while. Wall euphyllia don't seem to grow at the rate which I've experienced with the branching type.

[wharyat]

Originally Posted by John.unlimited

This thing is going to that big one day?

Yes, but the wall morphology is a pretty slow grower, especially in captivity. It would be a very long time for it to reach that size in aquaria. I've had mine for just over 5 years now, it's put on about 1" of skeleton in that time.

[aquawolf]

Originally Posted by crvz

with good care it can, but 3 feet (not inches, AW ) will take a while. Wall euphyllia don't seem to grow at the rate which I've experienced with the branching type.

Thanks for pointing that out Chris. I misread the little glitch mark.

If it grew 1 inch over 5 years then this may be a coral that you will be leaving to your great grandchildren in order to see it reach the 3 foot size.