Feather Duster- sick?

[ceruleanspiral]

So I did a bunch of changes (sort of) to my tank. I got 6 coral frags last weekend in the WWC Live Sale (got them 8/1), I bought a lawnmower blenny (7/26), I bought a cleaner shrimp, and I bought 3 peppermint shrimp (all 4 shrimp yesterday).

I have had a feather duster worm since April- he's nice and big. Been fanned out and beautiful since I got him. As of today he's been poking really far out of his tube and lying his fans on the sand/shell next to his tube. Is he hungry? Sick? No shrimp have been anywhere near the feather duster that I've seen.

His fan is normally about 3" across? Maybe? I feed frozen mysis and brine shrimp or Formula Two pellets every other day and a little bit of spot-feeding with reef roids about once a week (usually not on him, but there is a zoa about 4" in front of him (on that rock to the left in the photo) and the flow is toward him.

 

[ceruleanspiral]

He's gone! He dropped his feathers and he's not in his tube? :eek: ;Sorry

 

[ceruleanspiral]

He's gone! He dropped his feathers and he's not in his tube? :eek: ;Sorry

Ok, he's in the tube after all- and alive. Seems like he's acting normally, he just dropped his entire feather crown. What the heck?

 

[ceruleanspiral]

Ok, he's in the tube after all- and alive. Seems like he's acting normally, he just dropped his entire feather crown. What the heck?

Ugh, I usually do water changes on Saturdays but I'm babysitting and haven't had time. Now he's hanging out of his tube with his (face?) on the sand again, but sans feathers. I dunno what is going on. ;Nailbiting I'll do my water change after my in-laws come pick up the kids tomorrow and see what happens. I'll test, too. Levels were fine last weekend so maybe something got thrown off.

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

They drop their feathers when stressed or sick. The feathers will grow back. I've only ever seen them come out of their tubes when something makes them feel threatened. It looks like the tube is buried in the sand. Has anything been moving the sand around it lately? Also what are you feeding it and how often?

 

[vetteguy53081]

According to pic , the worm is stressed...….. either too much light or flow or an occupant is annoying it.
One thing to keep in mind- It may leave the tube or spit its' head. Not necessarily is it GAME OVER. I have had two and know of others whereas this occurred and the worm planted elsewhere and re-emerged. Leave the tube in place as there May be a new baby within tube that is forming a head and in a month or so, you will suddenly see and new duster at the tube.
Nature is Amazing !!

 

[sfin52]

I had one shed all its feather only to replace them.

 

[Is this the LFS]

So I did a bunch of changes (sort of) to my tank. I got 6 coral frags last weekend in the WWC Live Sale (got them 8/1), I bought a lawnmower blenny (7/26), I bought a cleaner shrimp, and I bought 3 peppermint shrimp (all 4 shrimp yesterday).

I have had a feather duster worm since April- he's nice and big. Been fanned out and beautiful since I got him. As of today he's been poking really far out of his tube and lying his fans on the sand/shell next to his tube. Is he hungry? Sick? No shrimp have been anywhere near the feather duster that I've seen.

His fan is normally about 3" across? Maybe? I feed frozen mysis and brine shrimp or Formula Two pellets every other day and a little bit of spot-feeding with reef roids about once a week (usually not on him, but there is a zoa about 4" in front of him (on that rock to the left in the photo) and the flow is toward him.

Have you changed your flow at all? I have heard that some may move if they don’t like the flow or just get stressed from the flow to being good. I had a similar thing when I moved mine.

 

[ceruleanspiral]

They drop their feathers when stressed or sick. The feathers will grow back. I've only ever seen them come out of their tubes when something makes them feel threatened. It looks like the tube is buried in the sand. Has anything been moving the sand around it lately? Also what are you feeding it and how often?

I haven't been feeding it directly. My fish are picky and won't eat unless my powerhead is on when I feed them. They would rather watch the food all sink to the ground ignored than eat it if I turn the flow off- so mysis and brine shrimp swirl around the tank every time I feed the fish. I also spot-feed corals reef-roids about once a week. Some still gets into the water column.

The only new inhabitant that has been near it is my blenny. He seems to like making the rounds of the whole tank (got a bit of gha). I hope there is nothing in the sand I don't know about!

I do move the power head slightly (from toward the back to toward the middle) when I do water changes (1x/wk) or change the floss (2x/wk). I haven't done anything different with that since I got it.

 

[ceruleanspiral]

According to pic , the worm is stressed...….. either too much light or flow or an occupant is annoying it.
One thing to keep in mind- It may leave the tube or spit its' head. Not necessarily is it GAME OVER. I have had two and know of others whereas this occurred and the worm planted elsewhere and re-emerged. Leave the tube in place as there May be a new baby within tube that is forming a head and in a month or so, you will suddenly see and new duster at the tube.
Nature is Amazing !!

I hope it's just that there's a baby s/he's making room for! I hate to think my fluffy little worm is stressed. :(

 

[ceruleanspiral]

Have you changed your flow at all? I have heard that some may move if they don’t like the flow or just get stressed from the flow to being good. I had a similar thing when I moved mine.

I change it regularly, but in pretty much the same rotation since I got it. Nothing new/weird.

 

[ceruleanspiral]

I just checked on him again after putting kids to bed and checking replies. I think he might be dead. ;Sorry He's still mostly out of the tube and slumped over it. He didn't move when I used the mag float on the glass next to him. I'll wait until tomorrow and see what happens. I'll take him out if he's dead and my crabs haven't removed him.

I don't know how old he was. He was fully grown when I got him and had a long tube stuck to the glass at the store. He was one of the biggest they had. I love feather dusters and I am sad.

I went back through my e-mail and I got him March 16 , not in April like I thought.

 

[ceruleanspiral]

Maybe alive after all? In the tube again today- moving around in there with his (face?) out. I'm thinking of getting some phytoplankton and pods to seed my tank, maybe that will help him eat? I just did a water change and I'm going to let it circulate for an hour before I test everything.

 

[2pawsreefer]

Plz update this rollercoaster of emotions tied to this story has me hooked lol is it alive or dead!?

 

[ceruleanspiral]

Plz update this rollercoaster of emotions tied to this story has me hooked lol is it alive or dead!?

Sorry! He was alive yesterday but I caught a crab on him late last night on my way to bed (I always do a flashlight scan in case of pest critters). He is totally gone now- tube is definitely empty. No more worm at all. The crab got him- either because he was sick, or had died. Now there's an empty spot in my tank and I'm sad. I ordered the phytoplankton and pods yesterday, but I guess that was too late. Hopefully it will help my corals and maybe down the line I can try again with a feather duster. He was so pretty! Super sucks. ;Sorry

 

[GThompson]

Sorry to hear that.

 

[ceruleanspiral]

Well this morning a snail died. I got up early because it was the first day of school, turned the lights on in the office and I saw 3 crabs and 2 FREAKING HUGE like 6-8+ inch long pink bristle worms eating it. I about ;Dead. I'm wondering if they were antagonizing my beautiful feather worm?

Now I need to catch them with my long aquascaping tweezers and I'm terrified. They are too long. Nope. Nope. Uh-uh. 1-3" bristleworm? Sure, chill with the CUC. Something that is as long as my dang forearm or longer? No. Nope rope gotta go.

 

[homer1475]

You do realize that even though those long bristle worms are unsightly, they play a very pivitol role in your CUC? And they only got to that size because they actually doing what they are supposed to be doing, eating detritus and the occasional dead thing.

Bristle worms, and their population in our tanks is solely dependent on their food source.

 

[ceruleanspiral]

You do realize that even though those long bristle worms are unsightly, they play a very pivitol role in your CUC? And they only got to that size because they actually doing what they are supposed to be doing, eating detritus and the occasional dead thing.

Bristle worms, and their population in our tanks is solely dependent on their food source.

What are they eating? I make sure no pellets ever hit the sand, I feed mysis or brine shrimp but only 1/4-1/3 of a cube and I feed slowly so the fish eat most of it. I would say I have had 2 snails die that I know of- and I have 5 hermit crabs. I have had 2 shrimp die that I know of- took both out immediately. I did lose one 1.5" fish once that I never found. How do worms get that big in 8 months? And they aren't regular bristle worms. They are really, really long and not bristly.


https://reefbuilders.com/2015/05/11/peanut-worms-reef-aquarium/

Down near the middle where there are 2 worms on a black background with the caption that begins "Asipdosiphon laevis & gracilis". It looks like the gracilis, the bottom worm.

The writer on that site says those worms were in rock that was soaked in a freshwater bleach solution multiple times and did not die.

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

They eat the extra wasted food that everyone else missed. Even if it is a little bit. They also eat fish waste, micro, and macro algae.

Bristle worms can and do become predatory if they get big enough. They will out grow their food source and then either die or become predatory. If the tank doesn't have anything eating the bristle worms, like a wrasse, coral banded shrimp, or psuedochromis, then some of the population will get big enough and hungry enough to become predatory.