feather duster info
- Thread starter fish guru
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you want to place it in the sand burying all but the last inch or so of it's tube. if you place it close to the rocks it will probably end up glueing it's tube to the rock making it impossible to move it in the future. you should feed it phytoplankton (i use DT's) a couple times a week. some ppl use a turkey baster to shoot the food (it's liquid) right towards the crown but i was advised by my lfs owner not to do this so i just dump it in the tank (and i have other critters in the tank as well that benifit from it). you can turn off pumps for a min when you feed if you want to...
i feed mine dt's as well (pee-u). i only have very small ones, but i'm looking forward to their maturing! i think it's best to put them in a medium flow area, not right in front of the powerhed, but not in a dead area either as they need flow in order to filter-feed. as far as them attaching to things, i'm not too familiar with that as all the ones that i have were hitchikers on live rock, so they are already attached. from what i understand they are fairly maintenance free, so they should be a simple addition. i have been told, however, that sometimes (i think often when stressed) they can drop their "crown," hide out in the tube for a week or more, regrow their crown, and then reappear out of their tube, so don't freak out if you buy one and when you get home the crown is detatched and in the bottom of the bag.
I love feather dusters. They are great for nano tanks. Feather dusters need to be fed Phyto a couple of times a week. Most systems don't produce enough phyto to sustain a large feather duster.
Watch out for hermit crabs. I had a rouge hermit crab that destroyed two of my feather dusters.
I would place your feather duster in an area that has light flow and almost no traffic. You want it to be a nice secluded spot that other fish or inverts won't bother it.
Also, don't rush acclimation period. I would do at least 2 hours of drip acclimation. The reason why so many people see their new feather duster loose their crown so fast is because the worm was stressed from transport or the acclimation process.
Watch out for hermit crabs. I had a rouge hermit crab that destroyed two of my feather dusters.
I would place your feather duster in an area that has light flow and almost no traffic. You want it to be a nice secluded spot that other fish or inverts won't bother it.
Also, don't rush acclimation period. I would do at least 2 hours of drip acclimation. The reason why so many people see their new feather duster loose their crown so fast is because the worm was stressed from transport or the acclimation process.
I got a feather duster as a hitchhiker and didn't know I needed to feed it. Fortunately, I feed my zoes once or twice a week (know it isn't necessary-but they seem happy) and that should help it. It's small but steady.
I have a large hawaiian, they make great beginner inverts for any sized tank. For those that have very small ones, they may not be the type that get bigger, I have small colonial ones and they stay small....and reproduce like mad.
i have a large feather duster who has dropped is crown 3 times in the past 6 years i guess. each time it was during or right after me having to move the tank to a new house so im sure he was quite stressed. i dont target feed mine at all. i target feed my zoas, pagoda, and toadstool leather every other week or so and i guess my feather duster gets enough just from them. he looks great and is very happy. my O. clown actually recently started hosting in my, probably about a month ago. its so cool to watch those 2. im actually very surprised that my feather duster accepted my clown 
6 YEARS?? Wow, I have never heard that. I was just reading about them yesterday and everywhere I looked they only lived 1-2 years max. Now if they split or somehow multiply I can see that.
yeah i first dove into sw close to 6 years ago and my feather duster was one of my first purchases and its without a doubt the same one. he almost did make it waaaay back. i had a green spotted puffer in my fw tank and decided to transfer him over to my sw. after slowly acclimating him to full salt over the course of almost a week he went into my tank and within a week ate my feather dusters shell? or whatever u call it i dunno down to almost nothing. then my gsp got stuck to one of my power head intakes and died.