Feather Duster Question

How do you tell if a feather duster is still in the world of the living? One of
mine hasn't shown a cluster of "feathers" for several days now and may have shed
them. I moved him out of a cave in the rocks onto the sand, and he apparently
didn't like it.

There are no visible changes to his body over the last few days; he hasn't begun
to decompose or anything. Any idea how long it takes one to regrow a feather
cluster?

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

If your real carefull you can sort of palpitate or squeeze the tube up
and down its lengths and if that worm is stillin the tube and with the
world, it willsort of jump, even if it doe snot have a crown. If yu
can squeeze the tube slightly up and down its length without feeling
anything inside its probably safe to assume he/she / it is history
and is either out making a new tube where its more happy or gone to
that tube worm territory in the sky.....Another lcue is if the tube is
crimped closed on the end sort of like it hsut its door and is out
too lunch, but then again its not as fool proof as squeezing the tube
somewhat. Just don;t mash it or if it is alive it will be injured, but
they will reaidly move if they start to feel pressure and its
unmistakeable as to it moving and being alive.

On Fri, 15 Dec 2006 17:12:41 GMT, George Patterson
wrote:

How do you tell if a feather duster is still in the world of the living? One of
mine hasn't shown a cluster of "feathers" for several days now and may have shed
them. I moved him out of a cave in the rocks onto the sand, and he apparently
didn't like it.

There are no visible changes to his body over the last few days; he hasn't begun
to decompose or anything. Any idea how long it takes one to regrow a feather
cluster?

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.



-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

Tristan wrote:
its probably safe to assume he/she / it is history
and is either out making a new tube where its more happy ...

Well, I didn't know they would abandon a tube, but this one may have done so. I
saw a feather cluster in that little cave, and it was gone tonight. If it
reappears, that's what's going on.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

Hi..

Well, I didn't know they would abandon a tube, but this one may have done so. I
saw a feather cluster in that little cave, and it was gone tonight. If it
reappears, that's what's going on.

In the 70s some of my feather dusters from the Mediterranean Sea were
able to (re)build their tubes using mud, clay-fine sediments and sand
but it seemed to be stressfull to them..

cu
Marco

Marco Schwarz wrote:

In the 70s some of my feather dusters from the Mediterranean Sea were
able to (re)build their tubes using mud, clay-fine sediments and sand
but it seemed to be stressfull to them..

Well, the cluster of feathers keeps appearing and disappearing. I squeezed the
old tube as Tristan suggested, and it seemed to be empty, so I tossed it. I'd
like to get him out of that cave, but I can't easily reach him. I'd bet that
he's so curled around live rock that I couldn't get him out anyway.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.

First time we ever had a duster jump ship I was pretty reluctant to
disturb the tube. My wife was all for it as she is a feather duster
and coco worm fanatic and if it was dead or gone, she was chomping at
the bits to replace it. She oculd not resists so she palpitated that
tube a few times and then finally decided it was not in there. She
compared that tube to one that had a worm in it that routinely was out
in view. She learned how thew differences in the tubes felt and
decided that tube was vacated. She could not let well enough alone and
used a manicure scissors to sut the tube open and disect it.....It was
empty, and no inhabitant was found. Sometimes we have found FD worms
to jump shimp and start a new tube other times we find them laying
dead. so its really hard to say what is gonna happen. If its been in
the tank for some time (months and months) I wuld zero in on what
changed or what is in there that may be irritting it, if its
relatively new, it ocld be from almost anything, and most times stuff
that has nothing to do with the tank it is in when it jumped ship. FD
are strange critters. I have seen some pathetic looking dusters sold
in a lfs chain store here that I would not take for free, but my wife
bought and they look super and are doing fine. I bought FD from a
reputable shop that had them for a long time in the tanks and always
in bloom and looking great, and even after proper acclimation managed
to loose them within a month or two. I will say the wife is leaning
more to the cocoa worms now. I like the hard tube cocoa worms myself
and its interesting to see how much they add to their tubes over time.
The new shiney white tube as compared to the old gray coraline
covered portion is easy to see. You can certainly tell if calcium and
alk is an issue with a hard tube worm.

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:07:22 GMT, George Patterson
wrote:

Marco Schwarz wrote:

In the 70s some of my feather dusters from the Mediterranean Sea were
able to (re)build their tubes using mud, clay-fine sediments and sand
but it seemed to be stressfull to them..

Well, the cluster of feathers keeps appearing and disappearing. I squeezed the
old tube as Tristan suggested, and it seemed to be empty, so I tossed it. I'd
like to get him out of that cave, but I can't easily reach him. I'd bet that
he's so curled around live rock that I couldn't get him out anyway.

George Patterson
Forgive your enemies. But always remember who they are.



-------
I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!