Just Got an Email From Home RE: Feather Duster...

[Desert Aquarium]

The wife just emailed me about the feather duster. It was prob. medium sized @ ~3.5" of "home" aka leathery what-ever you call it.

For the first time in my few years of salt, I saw the duster "fully extended" (?) out of his leathery case two days ago, he retracted and did it again lastnight.

Now, he/it is on the substrate, leaving the leathery case up on the rocks.

Is this normal, or did he just "bite the substrate"?

 

[Andrew]

Feather Dusters will stay in your sandbed and attach themself to the gravel you have.

 

[Desert Aquarium]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6485302#post6485302 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Andrew
Feather Dusters will stay in your sandbed and attach themself to the gravel you have.

Stay in the sand bed? Do you mean with the leathery part and all, or just the "worm" looking portion?

My feather dust (placed on LR) chose to leave that part behind on the rock. It (the leathery part) was getting fairly extensive for the size crown it had.

 

[Andrew]

The tube should be in the sandbed. Not sure what your talking about with the "leathery part".

 

[Desert Aquarium]

Leathery part = Tube.

Worm inside "Made a break for it" and exited the tube.

 

[Dubbin1]

It is stressed. Some people have had luck with them growing a new tube but I think most have died.

 

[Desert Aquarium]

If the old tube is placed near it, is there any chance it will return to it?

Are they typically physically attached?

 

[Holmie_D_Klown]

I would guess that it would be a water quality problem, i.e. the nitrate problem you were referring to in your previous post. I had one do the some thing and reappear 3 months later good as new.

 

[Entropy]

I lost mine when it left the tube, but I am not sure if that is normal. I am of the opinion that once they leave their tube, they are pretty much a free meal for anything else in the tank.

 

[thehedge]

The feather duster will regrow its tube if put in a safe place (away from fish pecking at it) and in good flow. It works best if in between some rocks. It will NOT go back into its old tube.

Some of the reasons a feather duster will leave its tube is that it doesn't like the place it is in (based on water flow primarily) or it is starving. You can try dosing with Phytoplankton to get more food for him to eat. You do not need to direct feed.

 

[Desert Aquarium]

I'll go by our LFS and see if they even know what phyto is :laughing:

 

[SuperNerd]

Try getting live phytoplankton.
The duster is very prone to being eaten by many aquarium inhabitants when it is out of its tube IME.