feather dusters and clowns

[debbie]

I have just noticed that my one feather duster looks like something is eating it. I have no crabs or shrimp in my tank only snails. I have these dusters sitting in a piece of pvc pipe that keeps them upright. The only thing I can think of and have never seen them is my two clown fish.
I have had some trouble with the flakes I was presently feeding them and have gone to a higher grade now. I feel they may not have been getting enough from the food and turned on the duster,.
Does anyone know if clowns will pick at dusters?

 

[booduh]

I have never heard of clowns picking at feather dusters. I do know that if a feather duster is stressed out it will lose its crown. Stress can be caused from water conditions, overactivity to the duster from fish or overpowering water flow and nutrition.
What do you usually feed your duster? They are filter feeders and need phytoplankton to feed on.
Another possibility is that dusters lose their crowns after spawning to prevent the parents from inadvertantly eating the young. This occurs with the entire crown dropping off, not a gradual loss of feathers.
Another possibility is that your clowns are unintentionally damaging the dusters by attempting to host in them. My clowns are housed with a bulb anenome but choose to sit in my halemida plants. Clowns have also been known to host in corals and other inverts.
The best advice I can give is to check your tank parameters, feed the clowns a higher grade food, check the dusters are getting adequete nutrition and then after eliminating all the possibilities observe the clowns behavior with the dusters. The good news is that a healthy duster can regrow lost or damaged feathers.
Also how are the dusters placed in pvc tubing horizontal or vertical? If horizontal, may be a good idea to place them in the subtrate or live rock so they can latch on to a more natural environment. If vertical, too much water flow could be knocking the duster in the tube causing stress and loss of feathers. I know keeping them upright is more difficult, but they should be grounded in a natural setting and allowed to adjust.

 

[debbie]

Hi, the dusters are vertical, they are not near the filter or any harsh moving water. I do add micro-vert to the tank. I have just changed my flakes I am now feeding a higher quality food and the clowns seem much happier.
I have not seen them actually eat the dusters so I am hoping that with the change of food they clowns will leave the dusters alone.
They are attached to the bottom of the tank in this pipe. I really don't want to move them as I would be pulling them off the bottom of the glass. They are quite buried in there. I have seen this one duster coming out a bit more in the past few days. The other one has no signs of anything eating it at all. So hopefully everything will be okay from here on.
Thanks for the info though....... :cheer: