Feather Duster

[RareZ]

Hi, I dont know what happend but recently I am noticing that my feather duster's fans are getting skinny. It looks sickly.. Could it be that it's not getting enough food? I had it for over 2 or 3 months. One of them just died recently, which I found out after not seeing it bloom for a while. There's nothing picking on it (on the fans) the Tubles seems to be fine, the one that's dead the tube seems to becoming more fragile and more clear.. like as you can see it's made of plastic or something.

I have few hermet crabs, 2cleaner shrimps, 1coral banded, 1 yellow tank, few damsels, 1chocklet chip star, 1brittle star, 1emeral crab, 1spider decorator crab, 1porcelain crab, 1scooter bleeny.

Is there anything wrong with it? Should I put some phytoplankton? Also what is a good food for the Scooter Bleeny? It's seems like it's allways on the move and picking on the live rock and gravel.

 

[nanoreefer22]

It's most likely dying from a deficency in the amount of food available in the water column for it to feed. Did you leave the other feather duster in the tank after it died? If you did that could be another reason this one is on it's way out.

Your water parameters could also be off, why don't you post those? And someone can get you some more elaborate advice.

-Kris

 

[RareZ]

Well I am @ work and I dont remember the water parameters but I do know that one of Nitrite or Nitrate is a little High like .03 or .3 something in that sort. Other than that everything else is fine, and Yes I did leave the duster there thinking that he's just staying in the tube, cuz he usually likes most of his time in the tube rather than out of the tube even when he was fine and healthy. So, should I take out the empty tube? Thanks again for your reply and help

 

[House of Laughter]

Rare,

More info on your tank is necessary - size, time up, circulation, lighting and all the detailed specs - salinity, nitrate, etc and how you are measuring them as well.

I would guess it's a combination of things.

House

 

[nanoreefer22]

From what I've experienced when a duster is spending most of it's time in it's tube it's unhealthy from there on out. I've had it happen to me sadly, just one of those things I couldn't get to live.
-Kris
Ditto on what House said .

 

[loismustdie]

I spoke to one of the guys who works for DT's Phytoplankton. We got into a discussion on tank feeding and he told me that feather dusters and flame scallops are 2 of the harder animals to keep. They need too much food and most hobbyists will have a hard time keeping up. Kind of like trying to get fish through their larval stages. I don't know this for sure, I've never tried to keep either one. I have tons of tubeworms and duster clusters that grew in my tank, but these are a lot smaller and probably don't have the same dietary requirements.
As for the scooter blenny, he's eating things like copepods and amphipods off of your rocks and sandbed. You need to have a lot of rock to sustain them. They can also be supplemented with enriched brine shrimp. Some say that they may eventually accept some frozen foods.

 

[drunktank]

how large are ur crabs? My hermit was large then my duster and he would pick on it and it never came out, one day i came home and my hermit was eating it! Pulled it right off the rock

 

[RareZ]

how large are ur crabs? My hermit was large then my duster and he would pick on it and it never came out, one day i came home and my hermit was eating it! Pulled it right off the rock

I have few different type of crabs, 2 of the larger ones are grey colored legs and they are the most active ones, they even try to climb up on the plastic lining on the corner of the tanks and once up they usually crash down again. I really dont know how would I measure them but they are about 1" or larger. The other ones are the red & blue legged and scarlets.. the red & blue legged ones hardly touch the tubes of the dusters, and the scarlets never do, they hardly move.

 

[RareZ]

Here's what my Feather Duster Used to look like.

Here's that Hermet Crab, changing it's shell. Cought him in action