Feather Duster

[Fatty]

I put a feather duster im my tank a few days ago, I also put a emperor cardinal (baggani fish or something) at the same time. I havn't managed to get the cardinal to eat yet, i understand he is mainly nocturnal so hopefully is finding food at night, as my system is a couple of years old.

Anyway this morning i think he had pulled out the feather duster and has eaten the crown!!

I guess eating the crown bit is not too bad as they grow back, but the feather duster seems to have ejected from his tube and looks like he's making his way under a rock.

Shud i re bury the tube or just leave well alone?, can they reproduce the tube?

when i gently touched the tube the sand covered body part outside of the tube did move so is there a chance he will survive? Not sure if he still has a small hold on the tube..

Help.......

Planning to get some live brine shrimp in there after dark to try and satisfy the cardinal so it doesn.t happen again, any better ideas?

I have two small clownfish and three chromis but i really don't think they did it.

Thanks

Fatty

 

[Aquascaper]

If the animal has left its tube then it will more than likely die

I have never had a feather duster recover from this event and I have lost a fair few in my early reef days

 

[Fatty]

thanks for reply

Hopefully it will make it's way back in, it still has a grip on it, i've just piled rocks around it to protect it,
but sounds doubtful.

If the animal has left its tube then it will more than likely die

I have never had a feather duster recover from this event and I have lost a fair few in my early reef days

 

[steelhealr]

Despite what you read on websites, and, the few people who have kept them successfully, they are not as easy to keep alive as suggested. Mine dropped it's crown twice..then disappeared and obviously died. They require fine plankton. Many people make the mistake of spraying the food into the center of the duster, which is where the 'exit' is. SH

 

[fish_keeper2]

ive never had a prob with mine. all i do is give a dose of phytoplankton every couple of days. it didnt even get stressed during aclimation.

 

[Opcn]

Something to keep in mind, If you are protein skimming you are removing all the phyto from your water colum and leaving very little in the way of natural foor for featherdusters and sponges.

 

[Fatty]

Well atleast now there are no fish to dig the feather duster out if it survives.

My Banggai fish died last night, I guess from starvation from sunday to wednesday night. I tried live brine shrimp and all the other frozen stuff i could find he just wouldn't eat anything

Here's hoping my feather duster will make it, I am not skimming and the system is a couple of years old, apart from a mineral mud sump addition. So I would think there is enough nutrients in a 4 ft tank for one feather duster??

Will be looking to get some phyto anyway...

 

[petey Z]

when u skim the water, wat can u add to replenish the foods (such as phytoplankton) for the filter feeders such as the feather dusters??

 

[steelhealr]

Your Banggai might have died from the same cause that made the feather duster leave it's tube. SH

 

[fish_keeper2]

can you post your water stats? if im thinkin the same thing as SH then it might possibly be water stats. possibly nitrates are a tad too high or you had an ammonia spike when you added the fish or something. or maybe the SG is too high or too low.

 

[Fatty]

can you post your water stats? if im thinkin the same thing as SH then it might possibly be water stats. possibly nitrates are a tad too high or you had an ammonia spike when you added the fish or something. or maybe the SG is too high or too low.

True, I did the full ammonia 0, nitrite 0 , nitrate 5, ph tests, and the only thing that seems may be a problem is my ph is only just 8, so hard to tell with the test kits, think i will have to get a probe!
SG is 1.0025 (right number of zeros?? u know what i mean) or 34 ppm

The banggai seemed off from the beggining, my other fish are fine and.....................


Good news!! , the Crown of the feather duster has just appeared out of the sand?!?!?, seems ok, maybe just a bad fish with the banggai, i'm taking a water sample to the shop incase i have off results..

I'm going to try and feed the feather duster directly, maybe he's making a new tube??

Thanks for all the replies!

Fatty

 

[steelhealr]

If you spot feed, remember to feed it from the side and not into the center of the crown (the 'exit port'). The worm filters from the side. SH

 

[RoyalGrammaPrincessHannah]

I'd also check out the fish I'm going to buy more carefully, and get a quarantine tank.

 

[fish_keeper2]

hey SH(or anyone else) can you explain what part the feather duster eats from. from the way they look to me i would assume the part u see is the part they eat with. a diagram will help me the best probly.

 

[CutieWitBooty]

yeah i was cerious too, i don't see any other opening on a feather duster...............