help with featherduster

[glnzoffun]

I have three feather dusters that I have had for about 1 week. They look great, but I am a bit worried about them. I placed two on top of some live rock. My turbo snails and hermits are crawling around them. Though it does not appear that anything is eating the tube or feathers, I was wonering if I should place them somewhere else, like inside a crevice of the LR or in the substrate, which is crushed coral. Help! :needhelp:

 

[drew2005]

They will be ok. My hermits and snails do the same thing to mine and no damage. The feather dusters will actually move themselves over time. They build their "foot" into sand or LR. Dont worry about it.

 

[glnzoffun]

Thanks! I'm not sure if they have attached yet or not. Also, two of their tubes (at the top by the crown, seem to be disintegrating. Normal?

 

[drew2005]

Originally Posted by glnzoffun
Thanks! I'm not sure if they have attached yet or not. Also, two of their tubes (at the top by the crown, seem to be disintegrating. Normal?
yes normal..mine look like that too. If you have a lot of pods in your tank then you really dont have to feed them anything. However it doesnt hurt to add some phytoplankton once a week. I add about 1/2 teaspoon a week. Good luck.

 

[mudplayerx]

Feather dusters aren't photosythetic, so you may want to place them lower down in your tank away from the lights. A crevice somewhere in the middle portion of the live rock would be great. Just make sure that they recieve medium flow so that they can get access to a lot of microorganisms (they are filter feeders).
Your hermit crabs will not bother the feather duster as long as they are the smaller, cleaner hermit crabs. Also, it does not sound like your dusters are unhealthy. I think it is fine if the opening of the tube is slightly frayed.

 

[glnzoffun]

Thanks for the info! As for feeding them, I'm not sure if they are eating. I have a "liquid" food by Kent called Micro-Vert (recommend by my LFS). However, I've read that this may not be a good product to use. Any suggestions? How will I know if they are in fact eating?

 

[mudplayerx]

If you have 1.5 to 2 pound of live rock in your tank per gallon and about 3 inches of live sand, then you really don't need to feed your feather dusters.
If you really want to feed them, don't do it more than 1-2 times a week. I wouldn't dose more than about 1 drops of phytoplankton per 5 gallons. If you are already feeding other filter-feeding corals, then don't add extra feeding at all for the feather dusters.

 

[glnzoffun]

No other corals in my tank (I do have a tiny ses anemone - a sebea). I have about 1.5 lbs of LR, but no live sand. I have crushed coral instead.

 

[mudplayerx]

You really don't need to feed your feather dusters since you have 1.5 pounds of live rock per gallon. I'd especially be wary of adding unecessary additives into a tank with crushed coral as substrate.

 

[glnzoffun]

Why is that? (about the coral substrate)

 

[mudplayerx]

Crushed coral traps waste and detritus and tends to slowly raise your nitrates over time. Adding nutriets to the water that aren't needed only compounds problems you might run into with water quality.

 

[glnzoffun]

So, How do I keep the waste etc. from being trapped? I know I can only prevent so much! I have turbo snails, bumblebee snails, hermits, and 2 emeralds. ANy other suggestions.

 

[crazyaqua]

thats the best you can do and water changes to suck up the junk in your crushed coral. you could always take it out and change to sand. it is a pain but worth it in the end.

 

[xjayx]

Originally Posted by glnzoffun
So, How do I keep the waste etc. from being trapped? I know I can only prevent so much! I have turbo snails, bumblebee snails, hermits, and 2 emeralds. ANy other suggestions.

Crushed Coral is not like live sand...
Live sand, you're not sepposed to mess with once it's in your tank but with Crushed Coral, it's very important that you constantly toss it around.
Just make sure that your coral substrate is no more than one inch high. the deaper it is the more waste it will trap.
The best idea would be to vacume the coral every time you do a water change. Just throw out all the old water and waste picked up by the vacume and then add your new water.
That's what I do.
I've got 1 inch of CC as a substrate in both of my tanks.
It might kill a few pods living in your substrate but if you have enough live rock, it shouldn't be to bad.
I know a lot of people will disagree but IMO, 1 inch of crushed coral is better for and easier to take care of if it's in a smaller tanks.