New feather duster out of tube

[Bars]

I picked up a large feather duster yesterday. The guy at the store had to remove it from the glass/rock and accidentally damaged its tube. When I got home, it was already partially hanging out of the tube. Few minutes later, it was out completely.

Moved it to the sump as one of my wrasses was way too interested. Now I know feather dusters can grow a new tube. However, I still have the empty tube laying in the DT. Would it help at all to place the empty tube near the worm, or do they not go back into their old tube? Anything I should do to help the worm build a new tube?

 

[ScottR]

This happened to me before when moving tanks. I moved the feather to the sump. It was completely out of its shell. It took a couple months or so to build a new tube. The old tube should be tossed. It won’t go back inside.

 

[Bars]

This happened to me before when moving tanks. I moved the feather to the sump. It was completely out of its shell. It took a couple months or so to build a new tube. The old tube should be tossed. It won’t go back inside.

Good to know. Anything I should do to help it grow a new shell?

 

[ScottR]

Good to know. Anything I should do to help it grow a new shell?

Leave it alone and keep your parameters stable. The tube is for protection so if kept away from predators, it will recover.

 

[Bars]

So this is pretty cool I guess. It has already partially rebuild its tube! Last Friday it was 100% completely naked (like the worm's right part in the picture). However, you can clearly see a new gray tube forming right under the crown and an accumulation of sand and other junk a little further down. It's in a dead spot on top of my DSB where I noticed detritus accumulating.

Bizarre how quickly it can rebuild a new tube.