feather duster

[saltysand]

hi , i have had my tank set up for almost 3 months now and all i have in it are 2 bumble bee snails, 2 nass snails , and 1 blue damsel. its a 29 gallon tank. all test are at zero and have been for about 3 weeks. i have reg flouresant lighting. my salt level is at 1.024.temp is78 degrees. i have live sand as a subtrate and just a couple of fake decorations for the fish to hide in.i am very interested in getting a feather duster. i dont' want to get it unless i am sure of what care and requirments they need.do they need live rock, more lighting , what livestock would be a threat to them. in a future i would like a percula clown, some zebra hermits , more bumble bee snails and a couple more nass snails but i will adjust that if need bee. any info on feather dusters would be greatly appeatiated.

ps i have been searching the internet and can't find alot on feather dusters , why???????

 

[swlover]

Hi I have a feather, was one of the first animals i got. She has moved to the sandbed, when I first got her I stuck her in the rock..she was there about 3 weeks and decided to leave her tube and build a new one in the sand bed. From my experience they like some flow over them, gental though nothing too rough. They don't need bright lights obviously cause where I had her was on top of the rock close to the light..she decided she wanted something a little darker. Nothing else to it, she filter feeds so no feeding required. I do use liquid invert food in my tank every 3 days or so, as per directions on the bottle. I have two O. clowns with her, flower anemone, curly Q anemone. hermit crabs, emerald crab, turbo snails, brittle starfish. None of them bother her...plus she is lightening fast, they couldn't catch her if they wanted to! The clowns I have, tried to host her when i got her..it was kinda funny, they would back up to her and try to settle in, of coarse she would recoil into her tube with a blink of an eye when they came close. They have given up and leave her be now. The hermit likes to hang by her, and she tolerates him, he is the only one that can accually touch her fan without her doing her disappearing act. You will enjoy them, mine is purple I plan on getting a few more.

 

[nereef]

feather dusters don't depend on lighting for survival, as stated above. they filter feed, which means they require some current to bring food to them. as for rock, imo you really should add some liverock. everything in your system will benefit from liverock. even if you just spent $100 for 20 lbs of liverock and $20 for ten pounds of lace rock, the system would be exponentially better. the feather duster will probably need to be fed in some way to be healthy. this could be done by a dropper.

 

[saltysand]

i am a newbie and finally got things on track .i am in the process of planning to buy a 75 gallon with all the bells and whistles and i am planning on doing major lighting , live rock , live sand and the works for that one but we want to practice on the small simple tank first. the reason i dont' have live rock is also because i dont' have the correct lighting right now and i am not spending 200-300 for a light when i am upgrading in just a few months and the light won't fit a tank 3x this size .if moneygrew on trees i wouldnt' mind but it doesn't so like i said i will wait til i have the correct lighting. :happyfish

 

[nereef]

why couldn't you transfer your rock over to the new tank?
live rock doesn't need to be blasted with light to stay "alive." in fact, coraline grows better under low light. bacteria is the main reason that we keep live rock in tanks. unless at the moment you can't afford some rock, you should get at least some. you can always add it slowly too.

 

[swlover]

Live rock dosen't need high light, of coarse almost all sea life depends on strong light but it isn't nessary for rock. It will do fine in your tank until you get your lighting, by the time your ready for your lights you will have all the coraline growth on it and it will just take off from there. I don't have the lighting system I want either, but I took two strip lights, bought some better bulbs (the ones that come with the hood are only good for fish) and put them over a glass canopy for now and everything is doing great. No corals in my tank, but I do have 2 anemones that are thriving and the feather. I have a 15 gallon tank too nothing big, like you i wanted to start out small, plus i don't have the room right now for a bigger tank..but I will this summer and plan on getting a 55 gallon. Smaller tanks do need a little extra work but I love messing with them so I don't look at it that way, and I have got my O. clowns to eat from my hand, as well as the anemone, and brittle star. I think with a smaller tank, since you mess with it so often, the inhabitants are more likely to be used to human contact and not run scared every time someone walks by..but thats my opinion. The first pic is when I first got my curley Q, second is today, third is the feather, then my flower the fist day, then my flower today..the flower was really little and he wouldn't attach, kept flopping over. Hope this helps you decide, just because you don't have the cash dosen't mean you can't have some interesting animals, with just a little bit of money. I paid $2.00 a pound for my live rock, on the great auction site. I have 13 pounds in there, plus shipping..it still worked out cheaper than 6 or 7 dollars a pound at the LFS, plus theirs looked slimy and no color what so ever. If you want email me and I'll give you the sellers name. Franksmoma@hotmail.com

 

[saltysand]

beautiful tank. i would love to have live rock . i went to buy it twice at two different lfs and they told me i needed a 200-300 buck light system in order to keep live rock alive. so yes i am very interested in getting some as soon as possible. how do i add the live rock without causing another cycle to start?also did you get yours fully cured?i really dont' know how to cure it and am still learning with the tank so i dont' want to have to cure it myself

guess i can for 2 bucks a pound though lol.

 

[swlover]

You can add live rock when ever, it will help with stabilizing your tank. Mine was fully cured, all I did was rinse it off in fresh salt water and pick off anything that looked dead. This is important cause you don't want to add any dead critters to your tank. Most live rock is shipped damp, wrapped in wet paper..no water. You can ask when they will ship it and have your airated water ready in a five gallon bucket, when it arrives just dip it and swish it around, if it has a lot of holes submerge it for a while to make sure any dead critters come floating up, you can also use tweezers to pull anything out that looks dead or dieing. Anything that is black and slimy get rid of, some sponges will die off during shipping and polute your tank and they are a pain to get off sometimes, then some will live. Mine is Fugi rock but you can get different types, all depends on seller and price of coase. I now have lots of purple coraline, and just a couple days ago noticed some pink and light blue/ green really cool.

 

[dchec2100]

I just ordered a feather duster that will be here in a day. I read they don't like current (from where I bought it)... but you guys say they need the current to bring them food... which is more correct? Maybe a light current?

 

[dchec2100]

Feather dusters are here, just drip acclimated them for 3 hours... they're now in the tank. I carefully placed them at the bottom, on some live rock... I think they should be on the rock, right? The worm of one dug into the sand, and his crown has appeared. Do they need to be layed a certain way so they can manuever? Like, should I try to adjust them? All three are basically parallel with the substrate. Also, after they're settled, will they remain horizontal or do they stand up? Obviously, I want the crown to face the front of the tank so it can be seen.

 

[dchec2100]

Anyone help on this??

 

[dchec2100]

Ok, one more shot here with a bump.... some of you must have successfully had these guys! :notsure:

 

[piscian]

I tried moving mine around the way "I want them to be", but they awlays go back in the opening of this cave I have. Now I can only see one of them