Hammer spawn?!

[fox0521]

A few days ago, I saw a tip of my hammer flowing through the water column. The coral was open and happy, there were no signs of stress, and there were no critters near it. (Low quality pic of my hammer at the end. ) I lost track of the tip.
Fast forward to tonight. I shut off all flow to feed reef roids and noticed a green dot on the foam cover of my MP40. Pulled it off with a pipette and sure thing it was the hammer tip! Only, there were 3 tips on it now. I want to see if it’ll grow, so
made a low flow area in my sump and made it feel at home.

So what is this?? Do hammers actually spawn and “drop” new corals??

 

[vetteguy53081]

Actually polyp bailout due to stress.
Can be:
High flow
Too much light
High alk
Low calcium
High salinity

 

[fox0521]

Actually polyp bailout due to stress.
Can be:
High flow
Too much light
High alk
Low calcium
High salinity

Interesting. Not sure what could be causing it stress! Flow is good, never whips the coral. Alk 8.4. Cal 450. Salinity 1.025. Haven’t measured lighting, but my zoas, Hollywood stunner chalice, and green devils hand leather all are above my hammer in the tank and they are thriving (good color, good growth).
I’ll keep an eye on it! The coral still fully extends every day, and it hasn’t dropped anything else. Could just be a one off!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Interesting. Not sure what could be causing it stress! Flow is good, never whips the coral. Alk 8.4. Cal 450. Salinity 1.025. Haven’t measured lighting, but my zoas, Hollywood stunner chalice, and green devils hand leather all are above my hammer in the tank and they are thriving (good color, good growth).
I’ll keep an eye on it! The coral still fully extends every day, and it hasn’t dropped anything else. Could just be a one off!

One isolated does happen

 

[Smarkow]

My understanding is that free floating polyps can and do create new colonies as one method of asexual reproduction. I did a literature search and could not find evidence in peer-reviewed journals, but this is not surprising, as most coral literature these days deals with some combo of genetics/biodiversity, climate change, and sexual reproduction.

That being said, it would be difficult to separate the phenomenons of polyp bailout and asexual reproduction (if any meaningful difference does exist, as these could be overlapping processes). Double that difficulty with hobbyist level time/equipment.

The best test would be the old school naturalist way, which you are emoying. Observe and record. Take lots of pics to prove/track your progress.

Good luck.

 

[Smarkow]

Scratch that, found this:

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00338-016-1433-0.pdf

 

[Smarkow]

Actually polyp bailout due to stress.
Can be:
High flow
Too much light
High alk
Low calcium
High salinity

My strong suspicion (I say suspicion because I know this is discussed in scientific literature, but am not adequately read personally to say it is true) is that polyp bailout and asexual reproduction may be overlapping or linked biological processes

 

[jdiefenbaugh]

E. glabrescens is the only brooder in the family, and the planulae would be very small, like 1 mm. Just looks like a tip that pinched off.

 

[Smarkow]

I *think* brooding vs asexual spread / polyp bailout are different mechanisms.
Again, not an expert, just trying to square what I am reading / seeing