Feather Duster

[Fatty]

Yeh,

Really need to get a quarantine tank (for when i have fish of value anyway!), but there is no way i'd buy a fish without re-searching it first, the stickers in the LFS are never accurate so i always cross-reference a couple of books and see what the net has to say. As far as found out the banggai would be fine in my tank, just not one that wasn't fine to begin with!

Feather duster is going strong it seems to have just inverted in it's tube and is poking out the other end now?!?! wierd huh.

 

[Opcn]

on the filaments off of the feathers there are cillia, the cillia pull the water throught the filaments and large enought particles get stuck to mucus on the surface of the barbs, big particles, larger than 50 microns are then removed from the mucus by the current, anything between 5 and 60 microns is moved into a feeding channel, small things (smaller than 5) just don't get stuck in the mucus, items 25-60 microns across are moved to be used in building the tube and items 5-25 are moved deeper in the feeding channelk and hit the digestive system where they are turned into worm poo.

If you are skimming ot even if you aren't live phytoplankton like DT's or phytofeast live are good products to dose, remember to shut off your skimmer when you do however.

 

[steelhealr]

The filtering apparatus on a fan worm are near the base of the 'feather' and towards the outside. The worms anus is centrally located in the fan. A common mistake is to spotfeed the worms, er....'tushy'...by spraying the food directly into the center. Incorrect....the worm should be fed from the outside near the base of the fan.

Considering it's an invert- is there something else I should be doing to maintain its liveliness? I try to target it with a feeding syringe.
<yes... an unnatural feeding technique especially if close by. Featherdusters are inappropriate for most tanks. Best left in the ocean or for nutrient rich species specific displays>

From wetwebmedia

One thing I do want to make clear, however, is that worms feed from the bottom up. I always find it somewhat amusing when I see a well-meaning hobbyist try to target feed their worm by squirting some sort of particulate food into the center of the crown. Target feeding is difficult enough because the worms typically withdraw into their tubes as soon as they sense the current generated by spraying food towards them. However, most people are rather shocked to discover that the current is generated from the outside of the tentacles as water is drawn upwards into the crown from underneath and expelled towards the center of the ring on the upper side. Thus, by directing target feeding streams towards the center of the crown, even those worms that don't retract immediately get little to no food from that well-intentioned effort because the food will be blown away from the animal by the feeding current it generates (the center of the crown is where their waste water gets pumped away -- by target feeding the center of the crown, you're effectively trying to feed their butts). Therefore, if you are trying to feed a feather duster worm, you should be directing the food to the side and below the crown, where it will be drawn through the feeding tentacles and feed the worm. By creating water flow through the feeding tentacles, the worms actually use the eddies generated by having a branch of their crown in the flow (similar to a rock in a stream causes a swirling eddy which pulls objects in behind the rock) to cause food particles to swirl around that branch and get captured on the upper surface of the tentacle.

From Advanced Aquarist's Magazine.

SH

 

[CutieWitBooty]

this interesting, i usually just spray the turkey baster all around it's crown and i'm assuming it's eating, because it's doing realy well so far (from what i can see anyways). I also don't keep my skimmer on all the time (too many micro bubbles) so there is always tiny stuff floating arouns in the water. Here is a pic of mine, he's go 2 crowns

 

[fish_keeper2]

pretty feather duster. mine is white and near the center its a brownish purple and sometimes one half of the pruple will turn green and the other stays purple and then slowly switch colors. ive watched it do this for 30 min before. is this normal at all?

 

[steelhealr]

Should be fine. I hope you all have better success with your than I did with mine.

There is nothing harmful about microbubbles. The oceans waves cause bubbles over the reefs all the time. SH

 

[Opcn]

but don't skim more.