Fan / Tube worms

[catmel]

How hard/ easy are fan worms ( feather dusters) to take care of? Ill have to double check the species at the LFS, but I was really interested in them. Ive read anywhere from difficult to easy to care for. The LFS suggested feeding with a small amount marine snow, but i've also read they can get away with 'eating' whatever drifts by from whatever the fish dont eat.

Also, I know coral beautys are reef safe with caution.. would it harrass the fan worm? ( I just put mine in my main this past weekend afer being in qt)

Curious to see what others experiences with them were before I thought about getting one / a few.

thanks!

 

[melosu58]

I had one for a few yrs. They are filter feeders but They get what they need from the water column. Feeding marine snow or plankton just for that will foul your tank water. They are pretty hardy from my experience.

 

[Dyami]

I just had a coral beauty...Well till I came home one day and he was swimming upside down and 24 hrs later....RIP Anyway, I have a feather. He left the full grown feather alone, but I had a peice of LR that had some very small tube and he ate them. I am no expert but that was my experiance.

 

[newfound77951]

I had a couple in my SW tank. They are very easy to care for. I did occasionally (once a month or two weeks or so) add some plankton to the tank (for some of the corals as well). The smaller one I had grew quite a bit, but the larger one didn't. Eventually the feathers will get tattered and they will shed them and grow a new set but it is nothing to be worried about. Mine each did it about once a year.

I had a pygmy angelfish that took a swipe at one of the dusters once. Of course the duster zipped back into it's tube and scared the angel so much that he never bothered them again! But there are fish that will eat them. I also had a 6 line wrasse and a Falco hawkfish and they ignored them.

 

[catmel]

Great news Thanks for the info!