My feather duster doesnt look so hot.

[SaltyMist]

I had to move my feather duster from my JBJ nanocube to my 20 gallon tank, it was a necessity I assure you, and came at the worst time. My 20 gallon was going through a mini cycle 4 months after being totally stable.

Anyway, my amonia went up to .50 and my nitrites hit 0.3 to 0.8, and so I acclimated my featherduster, snails and clownfish to the new tank.

So far the clown is doing great as are the snails. But the feather duster is looking pekid(sp?), when he does come out with all his feathers, his feathers are thin and not nearly as full (though it's not lost any feathers, they are just skinny so to speak), and when it retracts, welll...... (when I first got it, and he retracted into his tube, he would close the end of his tube with a pinch in the middle of the tube, now when he retracts his opening of it's tube is basically left open.

I do feed Kent Marines Phytoplex once a week at the directions of my LFS, they said just give maybe half a capfull (since I only have a 20 gallon tank) once per week and to disregard the 3x a week feeding schedule on the bottle.

Im wondering if it will recover, or at what point it should be removed from the tank to avoid polluting the other inhabitants.

Thanks, hope that made sence.

P.S. My current tank paramaters are
temp 80 to 82 (had a spike up to 86f today due to a hotspell in the weather)
Amonia 0
Nitrites < 0.3
Nitrates (last week they were up to 30 to 50ppm, but I've done a total of 15 gallons of water changes , 3 x 5 gallons in one week)

Any other tests I must run for this situation, feel free to let me know, I have almost all of the available tests but dont like to run them unless I absolutely have to.

Thanks again.

 

[Baianotang]

"his feathers are thin and not nearly as full (though it's not lost any feathers, they are just skinny so to speak),"
That happens when they are "unhappy" and are going throw a hard time i've had that in my tank and it has recovered and is doing great now. So you'll have to wait and see make sure your parameters continue to be OK. They are hardy animals. Good luck.

 

[Anonymous]

True. Target feeding if he drops his crown will help the new regrow, too (which is also a normal occurrence).

But, I'm curious, why didn't you just do a big water change?

 

[SaltyMist]

Well the tank is only 20 gallons (so to me a 5 gallon water change is a big change) and my LFS said to change between 30 and 50% of the water, and all I had on hand at the time was 5 gallons of water. They a day later or so I got another 5 gallons, and today I got another 5 gallons.

Tommorrow Im thinking to just go get 15 gallons of water (I have three 5 gallons jugs that can be filled) and do 3 more water changes this coming 7 days.

Also, if I do more than 5 gallons at a time, then some of my liverock are exposed to the air, which I've heard is a bad thing.

 

[Anonymous]

To you a 25% w/c may be big, but on the scale of relativity it's still only 25%. A 75%-100% water change is a big water change, but if you haven't got it on hand you simply haven't got it on hand, yeah? So, you do what you can.

Do one large change instead of three small ones, it will have a much larger impact on those readings.

Exposing live rock for a short period of time isn't anywhere nearly as harmful as I think you think it may be. Also, it's a LOT less stressful than moving the occupants back and forth! The stuff is shipped in a damp-only condition. As long as it's not left in a "dry" condition for an extended period of time you'll be fine.

At this point, I strongly suggest that you try to keep on hand enough water for at least one complete water change. It will come in handy on at least one occasion.

 

[SaltyMist]

Thanks, well the featherduster left it's old home today, and moved over to the other side of the tank and has been sitting there all day now, it's feathers are still open so I dont think it's dead or anything like that. Perhaps it just really didnt like it's placement in the tank, I checked my water paramaters last night and the amonia and nitrites were both down to 0 again, and I just finished checking my nitrates a few minutes ago and they are way down, last week they were 30 to 50 and today they are between 0 and 5.0

So I guess the 15 gallons of water I picked up today wont have to be used in the tank since all the paramaters are correct again.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Anonymous]

Great. You may want to cover the worm up with a little sand (if that's the substrate). Just for protection. Keep the water on hand, believe me, it'll come in handy.

 

[SaltyMist]

Well, apparently I spoke too soon. I decided to clean out the canister today, and I guess while I was doing that the worm moved again event though it had been sitting in one spot all day, and sure enough dropped all his feathers, and the anemone crab got him. I looked and looked all over the place to find him and I finally found him in a cave with a huge hole in his side and what I can only presume his guts to be hanging out. So I removed the worms body (YUCK!) and I guess the anemone crab will eat up the feathers.

[EDIT]Or NOT, the crown came blowing out in the current and I just removed it with a stick.[/EDIT]

Just one more critter to capture from my tank to make it 100% peacefull (Dang Anemone Crab).