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ctreeftank 
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Joined: November 10 2013
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 Topic: feather duster lost his head
Posted: December 08 2013 at 1:49pm |
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Hi i just bought two feather dusters to days ago. One is doing very well all opeaned up. The other one has lost his head after getting stung by my frog spawn?
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ReefdUp
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Joined: March 20 2011
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Posted: December 08 2013 at 2:05pm |
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Feather dusters will abandon their tubes and/or drop their crown when stressed, which could be from a variety of reasons (starvation is the most common, unruly tank mates, stress from water conditions, etc.) It's a survival mechanism. If just the crown was lost (and the worm is still in the tube), then it may recover (but the crown catches food...so it may starve in the meantime). If the worm evacuated the tube, then it is in search of a suitable home. Sometimes they are successful, but usually they die from their original stressor (starvation or poor water quality).
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www.reefdup.com
Diving since 2009, reefkeeping since 2007, & fishkeeping since 1987
200g, 75g, & 15g Systems
PADI Advanced Open Water
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peart_tyler
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Joined: September 19 2013
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Posted: December 08 2013 at 2:05pm |
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One of mine did the same thing but I found out it was one of my crabs that was pulling them off. He did it to one then one night I saw him pulling the other feather dusters off
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Tyler
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phys
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Posted: December 08 2013 at 6:24pm |
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I have had one come off several times in the few years I've had it... No reason that I could tell for any of them. Just leave it alone and it should grow another if everything is fine in the tank.
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Mark Peterson
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Joined: June 19 2002
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Posted: December 09 2013 at 9:03am |
Hopefully it will grow a new crown of radioles, the feather like tentacles extending from the head of the worm. Featherduster worms love to eat plankton and some especially like phytoplankton. I have extra of the BSD Tahitian Blend concentrated phytoplankton. If you want some just call and come visit and I'll give you a free sample. I sell it $3 for a 1/4 cup which could last a month feeding your 100+ gal system. Other plankton in the form of zooplanton comes out at night from the sand. Bacterioplankton is great too. It can be fed in copious quantities by stirring a portion of the sand bed with your hand, with a stick or by squirting tank water into the sand with a turkey baster or large Syringe to make detritus puff up into the water column. Coral love to eat this too.  Hope this helps. Aloha, Mark  808-345-1049 call/text/visit anytime
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ctreeftank
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Posted: December 10 2013 at 12:39pm |
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th feather duster died.
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: December 10 2013 at 2:39pm |
Sorry to hear that. I have set inverts too close together myself. Some have sweeper tentacles over 4 inches long. After the battle, sometimes they recover, sometimes they don't.  A hobbyist was just commenting to me yesterday how Frogspawn, Hammer, and Torch Coral, the Euphyllia sp. can mingle closely and get along. Aloha, Mark
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