Candy-canes and feather dusters - care help

[zar]

I just added three small feather dusters to my tank, along with a candy-cane coral. I have a couple of questions:

1) Do FD's need a tight crevice to lodge in, or is a fairly big crevice okay? I mean, they seem to have some kind of foot or pad, but does it need to be planted in something particular? The live rock I've got has several great crevices which I put the FD's in, but I'm not sure if they need more of a tight home or do well just about anywhere.

2) I thought the candy-cane's were a hard coral, but now see that they have some sort of tentacle system. So far I only see that at night when the tank lights are out. Is this normal behavior?

What do these guys eat? Is it sufficient to just let them skim the water for nutrients or do I need to supplement them? I know the LFS recommended that I supplement my polyps with a phytoplankton liquid about once a week (which, btw, the cleaner shrimp smells and comes *running* every time this stuff hits the water), but do other corals and softies require supplements?

BTW, this is a new tank (as you have probably surmised). 30g, reef, no swimmers yet.

Also, what is a good reference for these kinds of questions? Any books that you can recommend for behavior, applicability, growth, etc., requirements?

thanks,
bruce

 

[OrionGirl]

Feather dusters can attach to just about anywhere. Giving them a good crevice that's small enough to keep out attackers is about all they need. They'll slowly secrete more of the papery tube stuff to attach themselves, so make any moves ASAP--moving them once they've attached can be bad.

For both--the phytoplankton should be a good food source. Dose regularly, when the polyps/crowns are out. Otherwise, keeping parameters stable and in the 'good' range for calcium will help them out. Eric Borneman's book on corals comes highly recommended--I can't think of the name right now, though...