SOFT tube feather duster

i'd like to share my experience in the hope of adding to our knowledge of feather dusters. when i first got a hawaiian feather duster, i buried its rear end under the sand between two rocks. at first it was doing fine (i guessed), but noticed some tentacles from the crown are cut off each day. within days it just totally lost the whole crown. after a week i got more LR, a blenny and a hermit crab, and started to do a major rearranging which caused it such stress (i think) that it jumped out of its tube. now having read from an old post that said not to try placing it back to its tube cause it wont ever go back in there. so i threw out the tube and observed the worm. i fed it phytoplankton everyday.
in a few weeks it started to grow a new crown, but it never made a new tube.he would secrete some slime but only enough to have a patch of sand sticking near its mouth.

alright, i was starting to be optimistic about it surviving. a few days later it seemed like something green and whitish slime is causing the crown to decay. i only saw the mouth part cause it was hiding behind a rock most of the time. but when it came out in the open, i saw like a big chunk of its front end chewed out and covered with the same slime. its like flesh-eating leprosy... eeeeeiiiiwww!!! it gives me the chills! the next day i found the hermit crab munching on that part of the worm. i wondered if it was the culprit cause i never saw it disturbing the worm at any time. he was always busy eating diatoms on my rocks. second, i thought if it was just eating the dead part. few minutes later he was off the worm but came back soon enough. 2 days later tonight the crab totally quit (so i think) but the worm has completely lost its mouth! its still alive though. so i put it in the refugium so in case he dies i can quickly pull him out.
[/IMG]
[/IMG]
[/IMG]

 

Ok...1st, GREAT THREAD!! I think I read all 8 pages before posting...sooo...my LFS gave me this feather duster because they said it wasn't going to survive in their system. Apparently when they were stirring the gravel during their daily cleaning, the girl didn't notice the worm, and before it was to late, what was left was just a bare naked feather. Since they don't have sand, just chunky crushed coral, they gave it to me...

My first thought was to bury it with the crown sticking out so it could "make" new tubing, but it didn't like being buried, it came out several times, then I tried placing it in a hole in a piece of live rock, adding some sand to kind of keep it in place, but it didn't like that either, so then I finally moved it behind a piece of rock I have in a corner, away from all the busy bee's so it could have some privacy & hopefully not be disturbed...all this in a span of about a week. He stayed there for about another week, I'd check on him every day, hoping he would change, or put some clothes on, but he still hasn't. Today, I put him under the rock, I made a trench for him, and gently placed the rock on top of him...



Any ideas why he hasn't made a tubing yet? Also, I've never seen the crown of feathers retract, they're always out...and after being under his new home for a few hours, it seems like he's trying to wriggle his way out again...should I just leave him be? How long can they survive without their casing?

Thanks a bunch!

Veronica

 

ooops...ps...

sorry about the pic, I had to use my camera phone & it sucks apples...& btw his total length including the crown is about 3 inches...

 

Lay him on the substrate up front in the tank and let him figure it out from there...he will find his location of choice and then he will build a tube
Danny

 

I agree w/coldshot. Just put it somewhere and leave it alone. It could take a few weeks for it to do anything and every time you mess with it, you are basically hitting the reset switch.

It is vulnerable right now and its survival odds are low, but not impossible. Good chance it will rebuild.

good luck.

 

sorry for the crapy pic camera phone is all i have for now. looks just like peredhil's soft tube worm i put him in the hole of this rock and i think he likes it so far this is day two for him in my tank there is some sand in that hole and im thinking about putting some cc in there after reading this thread

 

the sand is not necessary at all. They can do just fine with just rock.

You will probably encounter it shedding most of that tube though if you let it keep just sticking out that far... they don't generally like to have their tubes hanging out past something solid (substrate, rock, whatever) and break the tube off at that point (they do it, you don't and shouldn't). Don't be alarmed if you notice that happening. Normal.

Just make sure there is enough tube behind that point for the worm to fit into (I like to assume the worm needs at least 3").

 

thats good to know this guy is like 6" long so i think he will have plenty of tube. also the guy at the lfs (i have to admit it was a petco) sold me kent marine zooplex zooplankton for planktivorous fish and invertebrates is this stuff ok for him. a real lfs is 3 hours away so if i can feed him this stuff it will save the trip. my clown fish seem to love the stuff. thanks for the help 3reef rocks

 

i think this could be the species of worm you have

Dwarf Colored Feather Duster (Bispira sp.)

 

no, the zooplex is fairly useless IME in general. Fish kind of eat it and I guess some corals grab it sometimes...

far better (far far far better) is something more along the lines of cyclo-pleeze.

However, neither of them will do anything for your duster. I have had longer success with them using something like live DT's phytoplankton.

Or a dirty tank in general. But I keep my tank pretty sparkling clean, so I go the DT route.

Also, they are very sensitive to SG swings. So I highly recommend an ATO system if you want to keep these long term.