Acclimating Feather Duster

[jm82792]

Just got a nice feather duster and bicolor blenny.

How do I acclimate the feather duster ?

I'm floating ti right now,

but do I just add some water to the bag over a course of 30 minutes then drop it in ?

[seabass]

Not much use to you now, but that will do it. I try to keep them under the water so that air doesn't get trapped in their tube.

[jm82792]

It's totally open and happy,

the blenny is out and is making a burrow.

[seabass]

I'm glad to read that. Any pics?

[jm82792]

Kinda creepy on how the antenna show.

Yesterday

(on the left)

Today

Whenever it's disturbed it opens within a minute or so.

[ocean_of_mirth]

I would get a lot of DT's phyto to feed him, or you are guaranteeing him a death by starvation.

 

I had one in a 6 gallon, and would turn the water green with DT's, and he would clear it in an hour. You can tell when he's getting enough to eat because you will see it emit "poop" packets from it's "mouth" (the opening at the center of the crown). If you don't see any poop packets come out, it's because he's not eating enough to need to "poop".

 

Feather Dusters are used to getting a steady stream of food pretty much 24 hours a day, so if you can only feed it once or twice a day, it should be a lot of food, and live so it doesn't rot before he can get to it.

 

I made the mistake of getting reef nutrition "live" phyto. It's preserved with ascorbic acid, so it's really not live as they claim on the bottle, and my feather duster hated it - would duck into his tube the minute I dosed the water with it (he would come out for DT's).

 

If you duster starts getting "nervous" and hiding very quickly or staying hidden, he's stressed from not getting enough to eat -- when mine was fed and happy I could slam the lid on the 6 gallon Eclipse (by accident) and it wouldn't faze him.

 

At wetwebmedia they say most filter feeders starve to death in 6 months, and I lost mine after about 10 or so. I was trying to feed him the reef nutrition "live" (actually dead) stuff, and then went on vacation for a week, and he didn't live long after I came back.

 

The tiny feather dusters can live off what's in your tank naturally, but the bigger ones (like this one) need a lot more food and have feathers that are "tuned" for much larger particle sizes. There's a lot more info on wetwebmedia -- I know it's not what you asked, but typically the LFS will tell you that they will just live on algae in the tank, when that's not true -- at wetwebmedia they say most filter feeders starve to death in about 6 months.

[jm82792]

My LFS would probably tell me I needed ot feed it,

he is surprisingly honest.

So I use real saltwater from a reef,

not much phyto for sure since it's where SPS is.

 

I can't go live/fresh phyto,

would marine snow or freeze dried do the trick?

 

I have asked about feeding before,

but was told otherwise on this forum but was pretty convinced it needed food.

 

Lame question.

Is there anyways to filter the plankton out of the water ?

Like a cheap diy net I can swim with in the ocean,

capture the phyto and like freeze it into ice cubes ?

 

I wouldn't mind spending an hour a month doing that,

i like to swim a mile or more at the beach when I can

[MGDMIRAGE]

Feather dusters are tough mofos, mine has survived 3 times being moved from tank to tank and being lost in the subtrate. Had it about six months now with no feedings and it was a hitchhiker so it blazed through the cycle too. bulletproof.

[D3monic]

I think its just hit or miss honestly. I have all kinds of featherdusters and other filter feeders. All of which are hitchhikers. I even have a xmas tree worm rock in my fuge that is starting to spread to my DT. I sort of feed but not in any obsurd amounts. I couldnt tell you the last time I dosed phyto. I culture it but I dont dose my DT.

[seabass]

I've heard that the larger Hawaiian dusters like yours require more food than some of the dwarf varieties. However, my dwarf duster has survived a lot. A Black Cap Basslet moved it into it's cave and it didn't receive any flow for over a year; plus, the only feeding I did was to feed the fish.

 

I think having a mature system helps a lot. Maybe your tank will get enough plankton from by using NSW. The local reefers might be able to provide you with more accurate information about using seawater (as most of us use synthetic salt mix or highly filtered NSW).

[jm82792]

Well all I do is walk 20 feet into the water,

there is sps(can't touch it/take it) another 10 feet out,

fill up my 5 gallon bottle and I'm done.

My system is 6 months old,

I run filter floss and carbon.

Would filter filter out the phyto ?

I don't need to run it if that's the case.

[scokill]

I tried a couple of feather dusters with no success. I would feel guilty trying again. Good luck.

[jm82792]

Head spinning,

too many mixed opinions

Okay I want to feed,

what dried food should I use ?

Marine snow, coral chili etc .............

[seabass]

I've never used Marine Snow, but it might be a better food specifically for the duster. However Reef Chili might be better for your corals overall.

[jm82792]

I doubt my zoanthids and palys would benefit much.

Hmm.

I might just wait and see,

they aren't rare nor are they in shortage,

since they are tons in harbors,

not on my Island but all the other ones.

[ocean_of_mirth]

The larger Hawaiian varieties are harder to feed, and their "feathers" are tuned to larger particles (from what Wetwebmedia says).

 

The smaller ones (dwarf and below) are much easier to feed -- I had 4 dwarf ones that came as hitchhikers that were basically bulletproof too -- only died during a power outage that killed 3 fish as well.

 

DTs is one of the best, but if you can't get that, you an experiment. I tried freeze-dried spirulina, but the feather duster would spit it back out again.

 

What's nice about the live phyto is that you can dump a bunch in the tank and it won't foul the water -- other than that, feel free to experiment, but you want to feed the tank smaller amounts much more often if it's a "dead" product, so that your duster can get enough to eat before the food starts to decompose.

 

Also make sure that the current (and food) is aimed at the "back" of his crown -- the "feathers" are constructed so that food is absorbed from the current coming from behind it (so if you are target feeding don't try to feed directly into the crown) -- experiment and see what works, you just need to be able to see him pooping out the packets later on.

 

Just to recap, though -- what I am talking about is aimed at the large Hawaiian varieties -- the smaller ones are much easier to take care of.

[jm82792]

I have powdered spirulina that's grown here.

I added it to the tank,

but will target feed with a water dropper and see what happens.

 

I have some smaller fuzzy red worms that sorta look like featherdusters,

they are in the thousands on the dark parts of my LR.

 

Good thing for a skimmer,

atleast I can't screw it up that much although my skimate is always green, might be phyto that's being removed.

[jm82792]

I added a very good amount of spirulina,

like enough to see the particulate float in the tank.

The featherduster seems to be more open,

much less sensitive to motion and the clown passing it.

I turned off my aquaclear with filter floss for a couple hours.

So I think it works, turned on the skimmer now it's really skimming tons of green stuff up.

 

The skimmer could do a tank twice it's size,

only reason why I added two teaspoons of the really fine powder to the tank.