Feather duster is out of his tube

My 55g tank is finally stable after 5 weeks or so with nothing but a cinnamin clown in there. I know, generally a bad move but I had him in a 10g that I wasn't maintaining as much as I should have because I was so focused on my 55. He's doing great though, very active and greets me at the front of the glass.

So two days ago I decided to get a few inverts. I picked up two coral banded shrimp, 3 Nassarius snails, 2 scarlett reef hermit crabs and a feather duster, just because they seem really easy to maintain at work. One of the snails died, but everything else seems okay. I have enough algae and detritus by now that these guys should be happy I think. Anyway, this morning I saw my duster hanging about halfway out of his tube and got a little concerned, so I moved him closer to a powerhead. I got home from work today and found him lying on the sand, crown still intact, squirming around a little bit. I'm wondering now if they need lighting similiar to corals.

I did google the subject but everybody seems to have different opinions. Some are saying it should be gently shoved back in the tube, others are saying to leave it alone. I also found out that they can just find the spot they want and create their own tube, but most people's dusters seem to die before that gets to happen So what should I do?
Parameters are:
PH: 8.2
Ammonia: .1-ish ppm
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
KH: 250-ish hard to tell with these test strips
Salinity: 1.024
don't have a calc tester yet

I've got around 40 pounds of LR right now, will be getting more. I only have like 450 gph of flow currently, but I'm looking around at wavemakers and plan to order one as soon as tonight.

MEH NEEDS HELPZ

 

i hate to say it but it will most likley die no matter what you do. you could try and put it back in the tube but i really dont tthink that will help any. if it was me i would just trash it but that is me.

 

They usually don't survive if they jump from their tubes, although I have heard of them making a new home in the rockwork.

I don't think they are easy animals to keep at all. The large ones you buy at the LFS seem to be a lot more sensitive than the small hitch hikers that manage to live through anything. I definitely wouldn't recommend feather dusters for a new tank.

 

Sorry to hear...I would just take it out now before it pollutes the tank, cause it's gonna kick the bucket...sorry. They don't have long life spans, so who knows how long it's been living before you got it.

 

I have feather duster breeding in my tank, the hawaiians and pink and green dwarfs. They are filter feeders so you should feed them phytoplankton or cyclopeeze.

they also need good calcium levels in order to build their tubes.

 

How did you acclimate them?

Ive had snails die because I didnt acclimate them like I do fish and corals I thought "They are just snails just toss them in" But inverts are more sensitive to parameter swings than fish are sometimes.

Brian

 

I aclimated everything over about an hour. 15 min temp adjustment then displacing water little by little.

Actually I just got home and my worm is poking out from between some rocks, moving around quite a bit. It still hasn't shed its crown but his non-crown side is what's poking out. I'm wondering now if the crown is actually his butt. But I put his old tube in front of where he's hanging out to see if he'll go back in. I imagine if he's pretty active two days later it's a good sign.

Anyway, I'm about to call around looking for a calcium test kit. They don't sell them at Petco for some reason, even though we have the API kits that do everything else.

 

So uhh, I just got back from the LFS with an API clacium test and my calc is 500 ppm.....

I don't see how this is possible. I've only added the Kent calc suppliment like 5 times since i set up the tank and I didn't even use a full dosage.

Does my water just have a lot of calcium? I'm confused.

 

Did you use tap water? If so, that's a possibility. But even more likely is that your salt mix contains enough calcium (which is usually the case). You shouldn't be dosing calcium without testing it first. Salt mixes will contain trace elements and calcium, and unless you have a tank full of SPS corals, you won't have enough animals in the tank to use up the calcium as you add it.

Calcium levels at 500 are high, but not dangerous or bad. So just stop dosing calcium until you get animals that use it up. There's no need to dose it. You are just adding it to the water every time you dose, and nothing is using it.

 

you dont have anything in there that is using cal. so dont add it. untill you start getting lps or sps corals you will not need to worry about your cal levels. you will get plenty of what you need judt from water changes.

 

Okay I'm joining late as I was on vacation. I'm glad you didn't toss your feather duster as several suggested. I have heard how hard they are to keep and that they don't live very long, etc.

I have had one (my first one) for over 2 years now. It seems very hardy, but doesn't like a lot of current flow. Just enough to wave a little. About 6 or so months ago I put a Large Angelfish in the tank he was in. I came home one night and the Angel had picked him to pieces and pulled it from it's tube. I found the poor thing on the sandbed just lying there completely exposed and lifeless. I ripped the tube off the rock, as it was attached and took it and the feather to my other tank. I put the tube in a hole in the rock and placed the feather worm into the tube, not expecting it to live at all. It couldn't retract completely because the tube wasn't long enough anymore.

Well it survived and now looks better than ever. Oh and it is one of the few things that has made it through several tank die offs and my recent tank boil due to broken heater controller.

It seems some live a long time and are very hardy! Good luck with yours.