kmatysek
Member
We've had a feather duster for a few months now, and has been doing fine except for needing to be 'rescued' from turbo snails and now our emerald crab.
He's attached to a rock and when we put him in the tank we placed this rock against another at the bottom of the tank, with his tube extend vertically. Twice I found a turbo snail cleaning - I assumed - the outside of his tube so roughly that he was swaying back and forth. I turned his rock around so that the tube was between the rocks, but a few days ago I found our emerald crab picking at the tube. The feather duster appeared more affected this time, and had retracted. Having seen posts that mentioned covering with substrate, I now have him on his 'side' (tube along the sand) and have covered any exposed tube with sand.
Am I over-reacting to zealous cleaning, or could these guys have done real harm? Is the position he's in OK (I've seen several at my LFS where the tube is laid out on the bottom of the tank)? He seemed quite 'happy' in the verticial position, but we don't have enough sand in the tank to cover the clearer part of the tube that's on the rock (and that's what the other animals were picking at).
Any advice would be appreciated. We've got several books, but none devote much to these creatures.
He's attached to a rock and when we put him in the tank we placed this rock against another at the bottom of the tank, with his tube extend vertically. Twice I found a turbo snail cleaning - I assumed - the outside of his tube so roughly that he was swaying back and forth. I turned his rock around so that the tube was between the rocks, but a few days ago I found our emerald crab picking at the tube. The feather duster appeared more affected this time, and had retracted. Having seen posts that mentioned covering with substrate, I now have him on his 'side' (tube along the sand) and have covered any exposed tube with sand.
Am I over-reacting to zealous cleaning, or could these guys have done real harm? Is the position he's in OK (I've seen several at my LFS where the tube is laid out on the bottom of the tank)? He seemed quite 'happy' in the verticial position, but we don't have enough sand in the tank to cover the clearer part of the tube that's on the rock (and that's what the other animals were picking at).
Any advice would be appreciated. We've got several books, but none devote much to these creatures.