feather duster exploded

[jbeck]

I got my swf order yesterday. When i went to sleep the feather duster looked good. I wake up this morning to a huge mess. Bits of feathers everywhere and stringy slime crap and what looks like the end of the tube all over the tank. Is it dead? I dont want to leave the tube in if it is to decompose. I checked my levels and it hasnt effected them.

 

[jbeck]

Update. I gave the tube a gentle squeeze and felt a pretty strong jerk in it. So i guess there is still something alive in there! Will it be ok?? It sure made a huge mess in my tank... stringy slime and feather bits everywhere.

 

[ryebread]

Sometimes Feather Dusters will shed thier crown. I am not sure if it did this for a particular reason but, it may have happened because the duster is looking to grow.
The feather duster has a worm inside that connects to the crown. The crown is what filter-feeds and combs the water for food.........your duster just let go of its crown. I have seen it happen before and watched the dusters regenerate the crown too. Good Luck.

 

[barracuda]

Yeah, i agree with RyeBread.
Just leave it like this and the worm will regrow his crown. For mine it took a month until new crown grew.

 

[majakarot]

just lettin' you know, i have had one shed it's crown then die a few weeks later, (starvation?) you might want to check on it every now and then to make sure it is still alive-- i didn't know this then, but you might want to drop some target food down it's tube since it can no longer collect it's own
hth

 

[brianp]

I aggree with Majakarot. I had a fether duster do the same thing and it died from starvation. I was fairly new to saltwater so I did not know about target feeding I wish I did though. I would target feed at least twice a week and good luck.

 

[leboeuf]

not to disagree with the earlier replies, but thought I would introduce another possibility. I found my HUGE emerald attacking one of my featherdusters I got from SWF.com. He was literally plucking the feathers out one by one. He had removed 5 or so before I swatted him with an algae scraper.
He is going back to the LFS today for a more appreciative inhabitant !

 

[tangman99]

If the crown is in many small pieces, look for something to have attacked it. Mine blew it's cap for some reason, but I found the whole cap in the tank. It regrew it in a couple of weeks.

 

[sarahmorton2003]

We got ours from SWF.com and it looked pretty bad at first. I was almost thinking of not putting in my tank. Now he is wonderful and is out all day. I know that stress will make it shed its feathers but ours only lost a few during shipping. Good Luck