Feather duster problem

macperry

New member
I have a couple of fairly large Hawaiian feather dusters i purchased about a month ago. One of them has retracted into it's tube, and hasn't come back out for a couple of days now. The other one seems fine. There have been no water param changes to explain this. Any info out there?
 
I've had mine retract for a bit and even drop a crown completely, but recover just fine. You can give it a little nudge with your finger to see if the worm is still alive. Normally you can feel it inside the tube as they tend to be pretty responsive to touch. For safety sake, you could even start running some periodic NH4 tests. Otherwise, I'd continue to keep any eye on the duster and water parameters. Good luck.
 
There are other things that can bother a duster besides water parms, lighting changes from where you purchased, water currents, crabs, even some fishes, all of these could play a role..

DaveC
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8145038#post8145038 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by theop
Are you feeding them?
Good point theop. I dose phytoplankton for my featherdusters, clams, and to help keep the copepod population up as well.
 
Feather dusters drop their crown from malnutrition and grow them back smaller (presumably to go after smaller food). Copepods would probably compete for the same phyto as the feather duster I would think. (as they both dine on phyto as a main food source)

I have had a large Hawaiian in my 24G nano cube for 3+ years and I think he lives on the diatoms I clean off the glass every couple days with my magfloat. Has never left his tube or lost his feathers (knocking on wood)

Can you still see his feathers? Is he in direct water flow? (mine does not like it)

Just keep an eye on him, other than moving him to a calmer spot in the tank, not much you can do
 
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