Feather Duster Dead?

[frankl15207]

Last week I received three feather dusters from SWF.com. One of them had slime emitting from it. This morning, the feather duster ejected its crown. I have had smaller feather dusters leave the tube and move around the tank, but in this case, the center of the crown looks hollow. The other two feather dusters are fine.
I have read that feather dusters may do this due to poor water quality (all perameters are fine), or for reproduction.
Questions are
How can I tell if the duster is dead?
Should I leave the tube in the tank in the event that it is reproduction?
The crown has been moved to my separate 10 gallon refugium / controlled macro algae growth tank just in case.
Thanks in advance.

 

[carrie1429]

Sometimes the duster will move if it doesn't like its locaion ad will leave the tube behind. It will find a spot and make a new tube. I have had 3 feather dusters abandon their tubes, I left the hollow tube in the tank for months until my starfish ate it.

 

[bradburycf]

I had a feather duster that lost his crown a little over a month ago. His tube was looking pretty ragged, and I wasn't sure he was still in there/alive (my cleaner shrimp seemed to enjoy tormenting it). Just yesterday though, he was displaying a new crown. I'm glad I didn't get rid of the tube. I don't think it will hurt anything to leave it in the tank. If it is dead, your cleanup crew should rid your tank of the tube just fine.

 

[mobikobeyob]

Squeeze the tube from the bottom up. he will come to the opening if he is in there. he may have already abandoned the tube though.

 

[wrassecal]

I had a hawaiian feather duster shed it's crown, leave it's tube and crawl into a cave and start making a new tube. I found it with a flashlight. All was well and it was fun watching the tube grow til something came along and took a big bite out of the worm!!! <img src="graemlins//urrr.gif" border="0" alt="[urrr]" />