How to stop/remove these Feather Dusters or are they something else?

[joe-ejs]

Hello,

i have a significant outbreak of what I believe are Feather Dusters. How Can I remove these? They are literally taking over my tank.

Any advice is much appreciated and Happy Holidays to all!

 

[R0L0]

Hello,

i have a significant outbreak of what I believe are Feather Dusters. How Can I remove these? They are literally taking over my tank.

Any advice is much appreciated and Happy Holidays to all!

Could we get some pictures so we can make sure they are feather dusters

 

[Supa]

Do you have a picture?

 

[joe-ejs]

Do you have a picture?

uploaded...sorry about that..hit sent too quickly the first time

 

[Supa]

Oh WOW yea that looks like feather dusters lol. I’ve never seeen such a thing over take like that

 

[Supa]

I’d start with trying to remove any small rocks that don’t have coral attached to it, pull it out and remove all manually. I have no clue to be honest thought. I was thinking the issue was most likely not feather dusters and was going to be some other organism etc

 

[Fatrip]

Some wrasses and crabs eat feather dusters if you want to go the way of natural removal, but they also tend to prey on your cleanup crew as well.

If not natural option, best bet I have found is to put a dab of super glue gel over their opening, this prevents them from getting out and eventually kills them. Granted you will have a bunch of white dots around your rocks until coralline algae grows over the super glue.

 

[Mikedawg]

Feed less

 

[homer1475]

Feed less

+1

Also I would assume your feeding some sort of powdered coral food? Cut back on that too.

 

[TnFishwater98]

Hello,

i have a significant outbreak of what I believe are Feather Dusters. How Can I remove these? They are literally taking over my tank.

Any advice is much appreciated and Happy Holidays to all!

Bumblebee Snails will take care of that

 

[joe-ejs]

Bumblebee Snails will take care of that

So is the substantial reproduction because of how much I feed the tank?

 

[TnFishwater98]

So is the substantial reproduction because of how much I feed the tank?

I bought a piece of LR from my LFS that had a bunch on it. I like the but I had a boat load. I introduced bumblebee snails and they definitely take care of them. I moved the bumblebee snails to another tank so they wouldn’t wipe them all out. If population gets High I’ll drop the bumblebee snails back into that tank.

 

[Duncan62]

So is the substantial reproduction because of how much I feed the tank?

Like most worms these will thin themselves out as the food supply does. Be careful not to starve it to much.

 

[dvgyfresh]

Tank size? A butterfly fish would eat alll of them

 

[vetteguy53081]

No bumble bee snails and not feather dusters but rather tube worms which use their fans to capture food. Simple direct water flow towrds them - NOT at them and they will starve OR you can Carefully place a dab of gel super glue fromn the dollar store on each fan and again they will starve and vanish

 

[TnFishwater98]

W

No bumble bee snails and not feather dusters but rather tube worms which use their fans to capture food. Simple direct water flow towrds them - NOT at them and they will starve OR you can Carefully place a dab of gel super glue fromn the dollar store on each fan and again they will starve and vanish

Why no bumblebee snails? Great to have IMO.

Going to work as I type

 

[Perthegallon]

And here I am playing for feather dusters like a chump

 

[TnFishwater98]

And here I am playing for feather dusters like a chump

Retreated Feather Duster above Tube Worm below.

 

[MaxTremors]

Feather dusters and tube worms are essentially the same thing, they’re all in the order Sabellida, they’re just different sizes and construct their tubes out of different materials. They’re both Polychaete worms that have similar body shapes and that eat and collect food in the same way. It just seems like a weird hair to split.

 

[TnFishwater98]

Feather dusters and tube worms are essentially the same thing, they’re all in the order Sabellida, they’re just different sizes and construct their tubes out of different materials. They’re both Polychaete worms that have similar body shapes and that eat and collect food in the same way. It just seems like a weird hair to split.

I like diversity in my tanks and they are a good CUC in a way. Always filtering the water column.