Feather Duster Help

[FloridaNewbie]

OK got a new Feather Duster last week, and all was good. But i was having a hard time keeping it in place, so i did place it by some rocks in a small cave and it stayed fine. However i do have 3 Pepper Shrimps, and thats their handout at night, so one day at night i saw one of them messing with it. But the next day all was fine,so i ignored it.

Well this morning i woke up and the actual CROWN was in the sand. So i removed it from THAT place and put it somewhere safer.

Now my question, The actual tube is FINE, and its not empty or shrivelled up. How do i know if its dead or alive??? how long does it take to grow its crown??

Thanks for the help guys. Here's a pic of it when it was healthy, you will also see a HITCHhiker Feather, my clown and my NEW Watchman!!!YAY

PS: I have some BROWN STUFF(diatons i hope) on the sand too, sucks!

 

[Sadielynn]

a feather duster will decrown when stressed ..... Pepperment shrimps are known to pick at them.... If they do decrown dont worry it will grow back it will stay in its tube and one day will reemerge with a new crown ....IME the crowns dont get as big as the first but.....if you keep him stress free and the peps away, feed phyto(very sparingly about 1-1.5 units as it is easy to get too much of this that will cause algea blooms) you should see a new crown in a short time (3-4 weeks some times longer )

 

[melosu58]

I agree as Sadie said the crown will come back IME. He was just stressed where he was.

 

[FloridaNewbie]

Oh ok, thats a relief, Lol. Well thanks alot guys. About the Phyto, i am going to pass on that for now, next week i will be going out of town for about 3 weeks, so i am "training" my brother and my dad on how to feed, check salinity, top off and test the water parameters at least once. SO i would hate them to experience an algea bloom when i am not here.

THanks again
Leo

 

[Nicsak90]

My feather duster did the same thin. Should I leave the crown and tube in the tank or should I remove the crown that has fallen off? I really did not like the placement if the tube because it did not open up in a way that you could see it so could I move it now before a new one grows back? Also in the store they told me to tube it on my rocks buts I'm seeing a lot of people saying it could be in the rock lying in the sand