another duster question

[liquafaction]

I have noticed that all of the little tube worms in my tank, are spitting off there "fans". I see them floating around in the tank, and the fish eat them. After seing this for a few days, my big feather duster spit off its fan. You can still see the worm moving in the tube. Today when I cam home from work, about 3" of the worm was hanging out of the tube. I was going to get it out of the tank after my daughter and I got done playing. When my daughter went to bed, I came back to the tank, and the worm was back in the tube. What is the deal with this thing? Will this thing grow its fan back?

[mogurnda]

Dusters don't normally shed their feeding appendages unless they're stressed. Have there been any big changes lately? How long have they been in the tank?

If the worm is healthy and has enough energy stored up, it can grow the fan back. If it comes back a lot smaller, it probably won't make it.

[liquafaction]

It is a few weeks old to me. I noticed the others at the pet store that was with this one are in the same condition. It is getting very disapointing having everything die on me. I do not know what easier, hardier inverts I can get and have them not die. I am about ready to see if my LFS will give me some aptasia he has in one of his tanks

[mogurnda]

I noticed the others at the pet store that was with this one are in the same condition. The same condition as yours, or the same condition as when you got it? If they all look bad, it probably isn't your tank.

In my opinion, dusters are probably best in mature tanks, where they can benefit from diverse potential food sources. That still may not be enough.

What's in the tank right now?

[liquafaction]

I was under the impression that dusters where easy to keep. I dove in so hard so fast with the anemones, I figured I would slack off, and get easy inverts.

The others in the tank were missing there fans when I went back and visited. I try to play the wait a while rule before buying from my fish store. Now that I visit the fish store more and more, I noticed that he sells out by the end of the week, and re-stocks every Thursday. I usually go in on mondays in buy.

[mogurnda]

To be honest, I don't know. Because they are specialized for very small food particles, it's hard to know whether they get enough to eat in a tank. The small hitchiking dusters in my tank have done well for years, so I guess they're getting enough, but I often wonder whether the big ones just slowly starve to death in most tanks. That's just an opinion, maybe they really are easy to keep.

I can't remember what your lighting is like, but there are some good corals that are pretty hard to kill. Green star polyps (I have to use kalkwasser paste to keep it from overrunning the tank), mushroom anemones, various leathers are all pretty hard to kill.

Keep an eye on the worm, though. It may recover.

[liquafaction]

I have 440 watts of pc lighting, and 2 48" flouresenct actinic tubes. I was wanting to get some more (different varities) leathers because I have had so much luck with my first ones. I have a bunch of mushrooms now. I also have some buble coral that does well.

I am with you on the hitching dusters. All the small ones in my tank do very well. a lot of them have doubled in size in the past few months. I have read, and kinda came to my own conclusion that the big ones would do well also. By the way, this one did die. I checked the tube last night, and it was empty. I figured my scavangers disposed of the carcus.

[Kurt]

I also had no luck keeping feather dusters. Yet I have thousands of very tiny ones on the undersides of the rocks. maybe the large ones also need darkness. Is that true?

[liquafaction]

from what I have read, the big ones need moderate lighting, and moderate current.

[tylernt]

Uh, guys. I understand the hitchhikers but purchasing an animal and placing it in your aquarium when you do not know how to care for it smacks of cruelty.

The care and keeping of feather duster worms is well known and quite easy. These worms are NOT photosynthetic and do not need light, but they do have eyes and will respond to light and movement.

To quote maine biologist Dr. Ron Shimek: "Feather dusters need a lot of food, and if the food is not present, will starve for a while and then shed the tentacle crown." Dusters also shed their crown when they are stressed out from poor water conditions, such as high nitrates (more than 10ppm), or if they are placed in too little or too high flow. I have mine in just enough flow to wave their feathers gently.

Feather dusters are filter feeders, and eat the phytoplankton in suspension in the water column. Unless you a) dose phytoplankton or b) you have a large system with plenty of LR and light or no skimming (skimming removes phytoplankton), your dusters will almost certainly starve to death. I dose DT's Live Phyto in my tanks.

As with just about any invertibrate, they appreciate full-strength seawater (~1.025 specific gravity) and natural reef temperatures (78-82).

You'll find tons of info just by searching Google. Here is the article I quoted: http://www.dtplankton.com/Feather_dusters.htm.

Sorry if I come across as a jerk but I hate to see any animal die from ignorance of their needs.

[liquafaction]

Sorry if I come across as a jerk but I hate to see any animal die from ignorance of their needs

you did, especially with the ignorance thing.

I do research as best as I can before purchasing an animal. Unfortunatly for this hobby, there are many differing opinions on how to care for animals. You have to take what info you get, put it to work the best you can, and hope to learn from your mistakes. In my opinion, the best knowledge out there is that of experienced people. That is why I come here to ask when I need help, and I help where I have experience to keep people from making the same mistake. If that is ignorant, then paint stupid across my forehead. Sorry if I sound like a jerk defending myslelf, but there are two things I hate, and one is ignorant.

With that being said. I use phytoplankton addatives in my tank weekly. I turn off my protein skimmer for 2 days after I put addatives in my water. I also directly dose food to what is required in a book I have, untill I gain experience on what I am feeding. My feathers were in the bottom left corner of my tank (low movement, and the least amount of light my tank has to offer). My nitrates are never above 5 ppm. Since I dose, I do monthly 20% water changes. My amonia is 0, and my ph is usually 8.4. My salinity was .023, but with the last 2 waterchanges, I have brought is up to .025. I have done this, because most of the research I have done shows that inverts prefer the higher salinity, and fish can almost tolerate anything if introduces slow. I have managed to (in the last month) keep my temp at 78.8 at night, and 79.9 during the day. I have a 4 inch sand bed, and about 100lbs of live rock. Do you see anything I have done that looks ignorant, or that would cause a feather duster, or anemone deaths?

[tylernt]

Again, I apologize if I came off rough. I did not direct my comments at any one person in particular. I saw some misinformation being thrown around.
...from what I have read, the big ones need moderate lighting, ...I saw no mention of phytoplankton. Since I know many reefers who have never had problems with feather dusters, and I can't read minds, these things led me to believe that there was a lack of knowledge about feather dusters in this thread.

Sounds like you're doing everything you can to keep feather dusters, for which you should be applauded -- though I personally prefer more frequent feedings: not only do skimmers remove phyto, but powerheads (arguably) do a number on the little guys too. http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=powerhead+plankton There has been some discussion on phyto-friendly water circulation, such as archimedes screw pumps or airstones, but so far none have been really popular that I'm aware of except for the HOB refugium, which only solves part of the problem.

Also, there are many kinds of phyto. Different particle sizes. Maybe the brand you have isn't quite the right size, and it would be worthwhile to experiment with other brands. Just a thought.

[RothChyld]

You both have a side to this and you need to kiss and make up. :D

I will tell you my success with featherdusters. (1) If they are hanging out of their tube you can about bet they will die. (2) I have kept mine for a few years and give them a strong current and feed them DTs everyday (1 capful) and Roti Rich twice a week. This food also feeds clams and other plankton eating orgs.

They don't require light and mine were closer to the bottom of my 90gallon with Power Compacts. I don't think it would have mattered if they were higher up to be honest.

Also 1 of mine has shed their crown before. General sign of this is either bad water quality as stated previously or something was picking on them. Certain fish and shrimp like to munch on these so make sure you don't have those in your tank. Regeneration of the crown took about 3 weeks to grow it back.

I believe these are one of the easier creatures to take care of in my tank as they are beautiful and cheap. Just give it the environment it needs and the food and I think you will be fine.

Liquafaction, on another note it is possible yoru LFS store is getting unhealthy feathers causing them to die off.

RothChyld

[tylernt]

Originally posted by RothChyld
You both have a side to this and you need to kiss and make up. :D liquafaction, http://www.updatexp.com/image-files/beer_mug.gif

[oscarlvr]

i know this shud be in the newbie section, but my tank just finished cycling, i have 110lbs of live rock on a 3" aroginte bed, there are several small feather duster hitch hickers that came on the rock that are noticeably growing, althou these were not planned on going int the tank at this time, i now shud get food for them, and what kinds are recomended, thought i would ask on this thread, thanks


robert

[RothChyld]

The smaller tubes arent nearly as demanding as the larger feather duster worms we are referring to. The larger Feather Dusters have crowns at least 2" big usually. The really small ones on the rocks generally don't require much of anything since they demand less food / nutrients.

If you really want them to thrive you can get DTs (liquid Plankton) but honestly I doubt you would really even need that to keep the little guys.

RothChyld

[liquafaction]

liquafaction,


make it crown, and you got a bargin, lol...... I apologize too.