placement & feeding of Euphyllia ancora –

Are you looking for a great coral that can jazz up your tank without being too difficult to care for? You might be in the market for a hammer coral, Euphyllia ancora. This popular large polyp stony coral species has all the right raw materials to make a great next coral for your tank–they build their own stony coral skeleton, have bold, beautiful, flowing polyps, are photosynthetic, can be fragged relatively easily and will grow even faster if fed.

If you want to learn how to care for hammer coral in your tank correctly, then continue reading below!

Quick Facts About the Hammer Coral

• Scientific Name: Euphyllia ancora 
• Common Names: Anchor Coral
• Minimum Tank Size: 20-gallons
• Aggression Level: Aggressive
• Color: Gold, Green, Purple, Grey
• Care Level: Moderate. 

Natural Habitat

The hammer coral can be found in parts of the Indian and Pacific Ocean. In their natural habitat, E. ancora colonies can grow to be around a yard in size. Most colonies in the saltwater aquarium are considerably smaller. Unfortunately, the natural range of the hammer coral has dramatically decreased in the past few decades and is categorized as vulnerable on the Endangered Species List.

The good news here, if there is any, is that the branching morph of this coral can be fragged quite easily, so wild collection should not be necessary.

Proper tank conditions for the hammer coral

It takes a moderate level of skill to care for the hammer coral in a saltwater tank. Like most other coral species, Euphyllia ancora requires stable reef tank water conditions, is intolerant to major swings in water quality and is sensitive to almost any level of copper in the water.

Since they are a large polyp stony coral, calcium and alkalinity are two very important water parameters that will affect the growth of your coral. This coral will start to die off if the calcium levels are too low. A calcium level of about 400 ppm is just right. Most hobbyists maintain sufficient calcium levels by:

Give your hammer coral some space–to grow out and to keep them away from other corals. More about that, in a bit.

Placement

This coral species isn’t terribly picky when it comes to the proper placement in your tank. The trick would really be just to avoid the extremes. Avoid extremely bright locations or areas of very high current, and avoid areas that are too dark or with currents that are too low.

Fast currents risk damaging the soft, fleshy polyps (and getting an infection). Bright lights will cause bleaching. Insufficient lighting will cause the poor coral to wither away and starve to death.

But that should leave you with a pretty wide footprint of suitable reef tank real estate in which to place your hammer coral.

Lighting

Hammer corals only require a moderate amount of light for photosynthesis and can grow well in the intermediate regions of your tank. Just about any reef LED lighting should be sufficient for most tanks.

Water flow

Moderate flow is the key. Think goldie locks and the three bears. Not too much, not too little, but just right. The polyps should sway in the current, but not sustain so much pressure they are constantly bent over their skeleton. Too much flow will tear the polyps (worst case) and cause the polyps to not extend in the first place (best case). So, don’t give them too much flow.

Compatibility

The hammer coral is considered to be an aggressive coral species that will attack its neighbors with sweeper tentacles. These are stinging nematocysts (similar to the sting of an anemone) on the end of a specialized polyp that can extend several inches away from the body of the coral. The sweeper tentacles pack a punch and will chemically burn any neighboring corals.

So the rule of thumb is to give your hammer coral plenty of room–both to grow out and to keep them away from causing any trouble.

Interestingly enough, while this coral species is aggressive to other non-Euphyllia species, they typically can be kept closely with other Euphyllia corals (frogspawn, torch) without causing any problems. For this reason, many LPS coral lovers will keep multiple species of Euphyllia corals in the same tank.

You will want to avoid keeping this coral with any fishes or invertebrates known for nipping at corals. It’s best to have hammer coral in a reef safe tank with only other Hammer coral surrounding it as it isn’t aggressive towards its own species.

One final word of compatibility caution is with keeping them with the peppermint shrimp. There are some reports of these guys, often purchased because they’re willing to eat aiptasia anemones causing trouble for hammer and other fleshy polyped corals.

Reproduction & propagation (fragging)

While it is technically possible that your hammer coral could spawn in your tank, it is highly unlikely. However, if you have the branching variety in your tank, this coral, if healthy, will propagate by putting out additional branches.

You can snap, break, clip or saw off those branches to “Frag it” and move part of the colony to another part of your tank or trade it to a friend, or to your local fish store for some store credit.

Just like pruning helps keep plants healthy, shaped properly and growing away from harm, fragging does the same thing for your corals.

To learn more about coral fragging, download this book.

Feeding Euphyllia ancora

All corals are animals. One thing animals have in common is that they tend to eat things. The hammer coral is no different there–but unlike some of the other LPS species, Euphyllia ancora is not an active, ravenous eater. Hammers are more subdued eaters who would benefit from the occasional feeding of a meaty marine food like mysis shrimp.

Feeding is fairly straightforward. Use Julian’s thing or a Sea Squirt feeder and push the soft, meaty food into the polyps. The coral may eat some of whatever your fish don’t steal away.

Where to buy Euphyllia ancora

The hammer coral is a staple in the saltwater aquarium trade and should be available at most local fish stores that cater to a saltwater aquarium audience. You can spend ~$20-40 on a frag, ~$75-$150 on a small colony or hundreds of dollars on the most desirable color morphs.

When shopping for your coral, you want to see big, fat, fully-extended polyps and good coloration. Shy away from discolored (pale/white) colonies, or colonies with tightly retracted polyps or those with their stringy innards hanging out.

This coral is also generally available on the major online sites as well.

Whether to buy a hammer coral or not

The hammer coral is a perfect coral for anyone with a moderate amount of reef aquarium success. Before trying a hammer coral or any LPS coral, I strongly recommend you start off caring for some of the bulletproof soft coral species first.

Once you’ve mastered caring for softies, the hammer coral is a perfect gateway coral to the land of stony corals, if you have space in your tank to add them, give them room to grow and still keep a safe distance from your other corals.

If you can meet this coral’s care requirements, you will be rewarded with a moderately easy to care for, a gorgeous addition to your tank that should hopefully grow and thrive for years to come.

For more information

If you want to learn more about other similar corals, check out:

Not ready for this coral yet? Check out these 5 bulletproof coral species, first.