Hammer coral, branching or wall??

[mekesterson93]

I just picked up this little guy at my LFS and was wondering if anyone on here could help me out on figuring out if it's a wall or branching hammer??

 

[helen ann]

Hmmmm, looks like wall to me ... but I could be wrong

 

[Vincent100]

First pic looks like a a wall sec pic looks branching lol so at the min can't tell ya
Maybe a 3rd pic would help

 

[mekesterson93]

Thanks for the reply and also for the welcoming! I thought it was a wall as well, but wanted some second opinions. My frogspawn is branching, are the walls harder care for?

 

[mekesterson93]

Okay, I'll get ya another one for ya.

 

[helen ann]

Wall Hammer Coral Care (sorry, I have the branching but found this)...

https://reefcorner.com/reef-databas...ral-index/euphyllia-ancora-wall-hammer-coral/

 

[mekesterson93]

Not sure if these really help much lol kinda just look the same as the others

 

[helen ann]

Staying with my first guess ... Wall

 

[mekesterson93]

Thanks for the link Helen Ann! Some good info in there.

 

[Vincent100]

I'd say wall aswell now
Think their ment to be a little Bit harder to keep because their more prone to brown jelly than the branching , couldn't tell you why this is tho
Nice looking hammer anyway and sorry about the ya just the London coming out in me lol

 

[mekesterson93]

Lol thanks Vincent.

 

[JaimeAdams]

I'm going with branching based off of the second picture. Is the stem below the flesh round?

 

[mekesterson93]

Yes, I believe so, until it gets to the skeleton(which I think is the green part, maybe algae?)

 

[Hunt3r]

Branching

 

[mekesterson93]

Soo, now it's about half and half between branching and wall lol... it's hard to identify with out seeing what the hammer it came from looked like[emoji53]

 

[mekesterson93]

I'm going talk to the guys at my LFS and try to figure out one or the other.. I'll let u guys know if I can find out

 

[mekesterson93]

Sooo, the guy at my LFS said it was branching? Still going to talk to the owner and get a definite answer

 

[stevo01]

I'm going to say branching, but once it grows it should become clear.

 

[mekesterson93]

I'm going to say branching, but once it grows it should become clear.

Yea, how long do you think it'll take before it'll show signs of one or the other though??

 

[stevo01]

I think you can tell now, my guess is about 3 months you should have sure signs.

Stuff I'm learning about Euphyllia genus...experts please correct me.
Branching grows quicker and is overall easier to care for than wall. Also you will notice a wall hammers tentacles curv inward, where as branching hammers have straight well defined hammer tips. A wall can pinch making a figure 8, but remains a continuous head. Watch the mouth and see if it divides. Branching are also nice for the reason you can trim a dying/dead head away from the main colony much easier. I would like to try a wall just to see how I do growing it, but I would prefer branching otherwise.

Elegance is in the Catalaphyllia genus, kissing cousin of Euphyllia. Other than than I know nothing else about it, but would like to dive into that soon.