Feeding mini-feather dusters?

[blorkiemom]

I've got a 5-lb piece of live rock cycling my QT right now; I've started to see some nitrites so it's on its way. In the past week some lil' itty-bitty feather dusters have poked out their red heads--about 5 of them, no more than 1/8 inch when open. (They're awfully cute, I must say, even though I have to look at just the right angle and squint to really see them. Husband thought I was nuts to get all excited.) Anyway, since they are the only living marine animals I've got, I'd like them to make it through the cycle. Been doing water changes, been feeding the rock a few flakes every now and then--but do I need to worry about the dusters? Can they find food in an empty tank or ought I be feeding them something special?

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[roadshow]

I have 20 or 30 of these little buggers popping up in my tank, and was wondering about feeding as well. Mine have been out for about a week now, and seem to be multiplying rapidly. I inherited my tank with a lot of LR and a gold banded maroon clown, so I already am feeding a few flakes and even a small piece of frozen now and then.

I would be interested to hear any feeding advice as well.

 

[malkore]

I asked the same question, only about larger dusters (like, hawaiian dusters). I was told to get something like Kent's Phytoplankton liquid food, and dose about half what the instructions read, once per week. (their instructions want a capful up to 3 times a week)

So I grabbed some last night.
However, what I have noticed is that in the weeks leading up to today, I'm seeing more and more tiny dusters all over, including the first 2 I saw. I think they tend to do pretty well on their own if you're feeding the tank normally.

 

[ReefGuru]

feeding dusters

When I set up my first reef tank well over 6 years ago, I went through a large bloom of pelargic (floating) green algae. In an attempt to remove the green water, I placed 2 feather dusters in the reef (two HUGE Hawaiian ones, about 4 inches in diameter). When the green water disappeared I started feeding them phytoplankton and they did just fine. Then, I went to Europe for a month and the friend of mine who was feeding all my tanks (I have 22) did not feed the feather dusters for the whole time. When I came back they were just fine. So I decided to stop feeding them, and wasting my money. That was over 3 years ago, and the feather dusters are THRIVING. As I am typing this, I am looking at the white one, and it is fluttering in the current and looks beautiful. One warning I want to make though is that my tank is very heavily stocked with fish. It is currently a 55 gallon thank with a maroon clown, a sailfin tang, 3 purple tangs, 2 mandarin gobies, and one engineer goby. through the use of feather dusters and giant clams and 2 huge DIY protein skimmers, I belive I have set up nutrient rich environment that cycles the nutrients so quickly, that the nutrients never have a large amount of time to decompose into inorganics.

 

[nodoubt471]

Been doing water changes, been feeding the rock a few flakes every now and then--but do I need to worry about the dusters? Can they find food in an empty tank or ought I be feeding them something special?

i would substitute the flakes you are adding with a little bit of phytoplankton solution (theres tons out there, kent makes a good one), and target feed them with a pipette or a turkey baster (just spray the stuff underwater in their general direction). do that maybe once every 5 days or so. when you get them into your main tank, i wouldnt worry about feeding them at all anymore, i dont feed mine in my main tank and they couldnt be happier. just target feedthem for now while they are in the bare tank.

 

[Bearfan]

I do dose phytoplankton for all of my filter feeders.

 

[blorkiemom]

Thanks all for the advice! I will switch to phytoplankton in the QT and then see how they do after I get them in the main tank.

 

[frshwaterfinatc]

Dose phytoplankton! You'll be amazed to see them all stretch out and take it in!

 

[yinsee]

hi, my first post here

i have mini feather dusters poping out when i start my tank but they are all gone i really have no idea why.

recently another one pop up, i hope it will survivie...

 

[roadshow]

I am beginning to wonder if maybe these aren't glass anemone instead of feather dusters. Mine seem to be coming from a polyp instead of a true tube. It just seems weird to me that so many feather dusters would just 'show up' on LR without any prompting. And I guess I'm a bit of a pessimist in that I've begun to think that only bad things are going to grow in my tank. Ahh ... patience is a virtue, but one not easily acquired I guess. I'm not sure about the anemone deal, but I'm going to let them grow for a while and see what happens.

 

[yinsee]

glass anemone look different from feathers. IMO, feathers retracts and pop out from time to time, but glass anemone doesn't retract, they "shrink"