Feather Duster HELP

[cwhit4gator]

I just bought a feather duster the other day. It has been doing great for the past 3 days. But all of a sudden today a worm came out of the tube. Which indicated that I had some high nitrates or nitrites. But even though the worm appears to be completely out of the tube, The feathers are completely out of the tube and bloomed. My question is do they give birth and is there anything I can do to save it now if not??? PLEASE HELP any advise would be appriciated. Thanks Chris

[Sherri]

I've heard they do that Chris....mine was pulled out by a Peppermint Shrimp - so if you have one, that may have been what happened to it.

[duc]

I have been told not to worry about it, mine pulled out several days ago and went under some LR. It seems to be doing fine, in fact besides no tube is acting exactly has it always has.
Clif

[CD]

Well, the fact that it's popped it's head off is a good indication of stress - be it poor water quality, incorrect handling, or starvation. These worms can regrow the feathery head much like a lizard losing and regrowing a tail, but it won't continue to do this after one or two tries. Also note, when you buy these worms and transfer/acclimate, they should *never* be out of the water at *any* time. This ruins the integrity of the tube structure, and can cause them to vacate. Once the worm is out of the tube, it will be even more stressed, as it has no protection and no defenses.

Serpulids secrete a calcareous tube and will need adequate bio-minerals (especially calcium) to help rebuild their tube. They generally will use mud, silt or sediments in the wild, and prefer this over sand. If you have a refugium set up, I would strongly suggest you transfer the FD here so it can try and rebuild. We have 'fuge mud and sand in our 'fuge, and there are a *bunch* of FDs in there, although they are the smaller ones, not the larger Hawaiian ones I presume you are speaking of...however, at this point that would be a much more suitable environment for your worm to rebuild it's tube. If in the process of rebuilding, it attaches itself to a rock, *never* try to tear it away from the rock...leave that as is, or you will end up going through the whole process again *if* it lives. You can try feeding it some phyto or cyclop-eeze. They will generally need a well established tank to survive, or you will need nutrient rich water - which needless to say is a double edged sword on a newly set up system.
HTHs

Wendy

[Ram_Puppy]

CD, He didn't say it dropped it's crown, the worm is 100% completely intact... to me it sounds like it's just looking for a location with better flow.

[Reef69]

I agree with ram, they leave their tubes to look for better places to be..they drop their crowns when the water parameters are all wrong..

[CD]

Hmmm...Well, if the worm is completely out of the tube, but the feathery head is still sticking out of the tube and "bloomed" , it kinda stands to reason that it's dropped it's head....or am I mis-reading this? Sounds to me like the worm backed out of the tube, leaving the head sticking out of the tube.

Wendy

PS- He also asked if they give birth, which would indicate separation also.

[Reef69]

lol..no they dont give birth...ive seen my featherduster.."mate"?..lol..he expelled some white smoke looking substance...which i believe its sperm...to a near by featherduster..more grew around it..pretty cool actually..when the crown falls off, they regrow it..

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/feather.htm

[CD]

lol..no they dont give birth


LOL - I know, but it sounded like Ram thought the worm was wandering around the tank with the "feather" still attached to it's head - I know cwhit4gator's post is a tad confusing, but if you read carefully, it indicated that the worm is separated from the feathery head. Worm out of the tube, feathery head still sticking out of the tube, plus him thinking that the worm gave birth - which to me indicates total separation of the head from the body. I read the whole section on FD worms in my book "Reef Invertebrates" by Anthony Calfo & Robert Fenner before replying to that post, but there was one thing that I didn't elaborate on - yes, the FDs will regrow the feathery head, but the book notes that if the stress that caused the autotomization persists, and the worm is stimulated to lose and try to re-grow a new crown repeatedly, the animal may very well just die. Regrowing a head, and having to rebuild another tube takes a lot out of an already highly stressed animal.



more grew around it..pretty cool actually.


That *is* cool! Were they the bigger Hawaiian or Caribbean FDs?

Wendy

[verynewatthis]

just wanted to say hi to everyone, and give yall some heads up,,,,the guy that started this is a friend of mine, he lives near me....he got the duster in a group order with me....we put it up in his tank and it opened up befor it even came out of the bag....he called me after he started this....what he told me on the phone is that he saw a 2 inch worm come out of the same tube....but the feather was still on the tube...i asked if he had touched the feather and he said he did and it yanked back in the tube...so i think it just a stowaway in the tube....it still opens up and is still in the tube in the same spot in the tank...he just didnt know why a worm came out of the same tube...i think everything is fine....talk to yall later...
rich hancock

[CD]

Thanks for clarifying that for us Rich. Heh...a stowaway, huh? Hopefully the other worm will build another tube - he'll have two for the price of one! ;)

Wendy

[verynewatthis]

i didnt get to see the other worm hope it is a good one for his tank.....i have a bunch of worms....soon i will call my self the brisslewormbreade4....lol
rich hancock

[Reef69]

Hey Wendy...no, its just a regular FD..I used to have a huge Hawaiian FD, but died..it was back in the day when i didnt know anything...although I have a bunch of coco dusters..those are really neat..

Diego

[Ram_Puppy]

cd, your right, I was confused, the text of the original is more clear now when I read it again... and again... and i finally got it.