feather duster lost head/found new creature

[christina_webbe]

Hello, my name is Christina. I have had my tank for some months now. Anyway, the feather duster I have has lost its head (s) and I'm not sure why.

Last night I was looking at the live rock with a magnifying glass and spotted something very weird; something I did not buy.

This this is about as big as the top of a hat pin, is slug-like, and is white with pink striping (sort of). The pink striping is kind of etched looking, I guess, not defined stripes.

Also, I have a Xenia and I think my damsel fish or the bully tomato clown are eating the hands off.

I need a lot of help and appreciate very much any help I can get.

Thanks

Christina
christina_webber@peoplepc.com

[Avi]

Well, Christina, it's hard to say why your feather duster lost the head but most likely it was from some stress due to the water conditions during the end of the cycle. It may also have been caused by insufficient food or inappropriate food in the water table from which they filter feed.

I doubt that the thing you describe will be the last thing you find in your reef that you didn't buy. While I wouldn't guess what it might be, you can look here to see if maybe you can identify it:

http://melevsreef.com/id/

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/mai.../faq_rock2.htm

http://www.reef-aquarium.net/resourc.../critters.html

As for the Xenia being eaten, neither of those kinds of fish would normally eat xenia or any other coral for that matter. If, on the other hand, one has resorted to doing that, I think the only reason could be that you aren't putting sufficient food in for them to survive. What and how do you feed the fish and the feather duster?

[bertoni]

To Reef Central

I agree that lack of food is a definite possibility for the feather duster.

[jgoodrich71]

To Reef Central

I am no expert with feather dusters, but I used to work at a LFS, and saw them drop feathers, and had customers call freaking out because their duster dropped it's feather. From what I understand, they do this periodically. Nothing to be too concerned about. They will usually begin to regrow them in a few days.

[christina_webbe]

Okay, first of all thanks for all of your replies. My tank inhabitants include some kind of sea anemone that only the domino damsels like, two clown fish I do not know the names of, one tomato clown, two blue damsels, one yellow damsel, a lawnmower blennie, two crabs, two snails, a candycane (?) shrimp, and last, but not least a mushroom rock.

Some of the live rock I have now have tiny red feather dusters on them as well. I was feeding the feather dusters phytoplankton now I am feeding them Micro-Vert for invertebrates and fine filter feeders.

As for the other fish, I have been feeding them one "gumdrop" of brine shrimp, once in the morning and once in the evening. I also drop some ORAGlo in there as well for the blennie and the shrimp. Sometimes I might drop an algae wafer in there for the bottom feeder.

I really did have some concerns as to whether I was feeding too much or not enough. It is kind of confusing to me.

My tank is only 55 gallons with a power filter and a protein skimmer. I check salinity and specific gravity quite often as well as 10% tank changes.

Okay, I guess for now that is it. Thank you for the links. I will go and investigate.

Chris

[Avi]

Well, you have a Domino Damsel in there and they're know to be puignacious more and more as they get more mature.

I think you might be feeding a little bit more than you need to, actually. I'd put in one "gumdrop" of the brine shrimp and put some of the flake in, too, rather than putting in as much of the brine shrimp as you are. If you want to feed a bit more than only one brine shrimp, you can put flakes in...but just a pinch...a second time in the day. Brine shrimp isn't very nutricious though fish love to eat that. So, this may be the motivation for some fish in your tank to start picking at the Xenia, but I'm just not sure for the explanation for that.

Overall, it sounds like you're doing fine and your reef is doing very well. You could bump it up to 15% water changes. You should also be testing for nitrates and phosphates on a regular basis so you can be aware of whether or not your reef is in jeopardy of an algae proliferation. I'd suggest you also get familiar with the balance between calcium and alkalinity and test for both of those and maintain them at proper levels. Those are all basics.

Here are somethings I find handy for water maintenance:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

http://jdieck1.home.comcast.net/chemcalc.html

[bertoni]

I would feed something like DT's Phytoplankton or BioPlankton for the filter feeders. The Micro-Vert isn't as useful for animals that need smaller foods (like feather dusters) and the ingredients didn't seem very high quality when I last looked, not even marine origin.

[Merredeth]

I have feather dusters and an Austrailan Sea Apple in my tank. Because of the Sea Apple, I switched to Marine Snow and have actually seen a vast improvement in my feather dusters and their crowns.

Prior to Marine Snow I was adding live phytoplankton however I discontinued it due to Marine Snow having phyto and zoo in the same bottle.

Strange, huh?

Denise M.

[christina_webbe]

I have test strips I use and a pH and alk test kit, I guess I need to find other testing supplies.

But I have to say or ask a few more things. Last night I used a flashlight to look at the tank. There were some wierd worms and a giant flea-like/crab (?) something in the rocks, very weird.

On a lot of my live rocks there are these things that are kind of dome-shaped or round, greenish-white, things on the rocks. They are kind of tranparent and kind of have a soccor ball pattern on them. The guy at my fish store told me they were a type of coral trying to develop? I wish I could send you guys a picture of what I am talking about, cause he does not really seem to know.

Thanks again for your input and for your patience.

Chris

[Merredeth]

Originally posted by christina_webbe
I have test strips I use and a pH and alk test kit, I guess I need to find other testing supplies.

But I have to say or ask a few more things. Last night I used a flashlight to look at the tank. There were some wierd worms and a giant flea-like/crab (?) something in the rocks, very weird.

On a lot of my live rocks there are these things that are kind of dome-shaped or round, greenish-white, things on the rocks. They are kind of tranparent and kind of have a soccor ball pattern on them. The guy at my fish store told me they were a type of coral trying to develop? I wish I could send you guys a picture of what I am talking about, cause he does not really seem to know.

Thanks again for your input and for your patience.

Chris

Chris:

If you could please take a picture of what you are trying to have us identify and post it either here or in your gallery so we can try to help you out with identification.

Also, what do these 'worms' look like. Would they be white, hard and there on the rock all the time?

Denise M.

[Avi]

Seeing things at night that don't look familiar is a common thing no matter how long you've had a reef. There are so many life-forms in the sea that it's almost impossible to easily identify all the possible creatures that came into your reef with the live rock. saying that something is a "coral trying to develop" sounds to me like the words of someone that hasn't got a clue as to what you're talking about but wants to either help or sound like he/she knows but really doesn't. One source of consolation is that most of the things that "hitchhike" on the live rock into your reef aren't a problem.

I do think that the "giant flea-like/crab" that you mention could well be a mantis shrimp, though. Does it resemble this?:

http://tolweb.org/tree/ToLimages/Odo..._scyllarus.jpg

[christina_webbe]

uh, no. I looked it up and it (they) might be copepods or amphipods. I'm going to try and get a picture of the things on my rock and try to find a way to post them if I can.

Thanks Avi

[Avi]

To post photos here, register at www.photobucket.com

Then once you've registered, place your photo in your photo album there. Once that's done, go to the photo in your album and copy the third URL, which is the "image" URL, under the photo. Paste that into a post here and the photo will show up when someone opens the thread. There are other sites that are similar to Photobucket but that one works great.

In the meanwhile, take a look at these pages:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-09/rs/index.php

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-08/rs/index.php

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-10/rs/index.php

[christina_webbe]

Well, I hope I did this right!

Let my know what you think.

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m...wingonrock.jpg

[Avi]

Well that's fine, though, if you want the photo to appear rather than the link, then copy and past the last of the URLs under the photo in photobucket.

[christina_webbe]

okay, but it is way too big and I cannot figure out how to resize it. Sorry

[bertoni]

I can't see enough detail to tell what part we're supposed to be identifying. Possibly a sponge or tunicate, but I don't think they're harmful.

[christina_webbe]

Hey, thanks for trying. Sorry about the picture. I can't figure out how to take miniscule pictures with my camera yet.

Is it okay if I have more questions or anything and ask in this forum again?

Thanks and I wish you a great day!

Chris

[BurntOutReefer]

Chris...although I didnt answer anything, I'm pretty sure I can answer this one for everyone on this forum.......

Ask away anytime......

[christina_webbe]

Hey Burnt out reefer, wow 300 gallons! Mine is only 55. I think I'm about ready to give it up, 'cause so far I have lost a $35 Xenia and a $35 dollar mushroom rock and I think it is because of this (sorry beforehand for sounding mean) STUPID tomato or cinnamon clown fish.

Also, this guy at this fish shop told me last night to soak one of my LR overnight in freshwater with some food at the bottom (of a bucket) so that these worms would come out and die..so I did and nothing came out. Well I guess it is okay to put the rock back in the aquarium?

I told you, I have a lot of questions. Thanks for your patience!

Chris

[Avi]

Soaking it in freshwater overnight is what one can call a goofy idea. It most likely killed whatever was in the rock. If you put it in your reef, there'll likely be some "die-off" from the life that had been in the rock and it may cause some traces of ammonia in your water. I'd put it in a bucket of saltwater and shake it around in there to loosen up any dead things that are in the rock and then discard the water and do that again. Doing it in salt water would keep any bacteria that was in the rock that may still be alive, alive. Once that's done, you've minimized the amount the "die off" and aren't risking too much of a chance that it would effect your water adversely.

[christina_webbe]

Thansk Avi, but it may be too late. Today after work I took it out of the bucket and set it out to dry. So this big piece of rock is probably ruined now. I also took three smaller rocks and did the same thing.....freshwater in the bucket.

I'm still going to put the rock back in. I bet it is too late now to try what you suggested?

I bought this "master" test kit yesterday and did all of the water checks and everything seemed to be great. The only thing is the nitrate card did not indicate if 20 was a good indicator or not. Do you know?

thanks again

[Avi]

20ppm is high...but not that high. It is largely irrelevant to fish, but would probably effect some sensitive coral and invertebrates, so it's best to try to get them down. I can't say for certain but it is possible that nitrates at that level stressed the feather duster. There are a lot of things you can do to get the nitrates down. Some things are more effective than others but doing as many of them as you can is the best policy. Regular weekly water changes of about 15 to 20% with reliably nitrate-free water like RO/DI water (until the nitrates drop to zero...then you could cut back to every two weeks or even three,) cutting back a bit on feedings, setting up a sump with a refugium in which you'd grow macro-algae like Chaetomorpha under an appopriate light, would be a number of such measures that would reduce nitrates. You could start out with the water changes alone with the food reduction and monitor the nitrates with the testing for a month or two and see how it goes. If the nitrates don't go down, then consider seriously the refugium. It isn't very complicated and we'd, of course, walk you through all that you'd need to know to do it so don't be concerned.

As for the rock that was put in the fresh water...no biggie. So long as it's so spanking clean now, it's not going to have much effect on the water'e quality...but keep watching, particularly for ammonia. If that shows up, increase the water changes even more. But, I'd guess your all right.

[christina_webbe]

Okay thanks Avi. I will try those things, but not so sure about a sump yet. Have to talk my husband into it, make up some really good reasons for spending more money!

Thank you

Chris