feather duster?

fredfish13

fredfish13

Member
ok, people. While doing a WC this am, noticed an opaque cylindrical object under one of the heads of a candycane coral. I had this coral for about a month. I kinda of remember seeing it before but thought maybe it was the lfs messy gluing of the frag. I know the coral is not doing well. Had it on LR and one of my snails dislodged it and maybe injured its head in the fall. Anyway, just want to see if you think this is a feather duster/coco worm. It is speckled brown when it comes out and retracts when I come by the tank. the opaque tube is about 1"long near the head. There are two really small ones on the same stem. Here is a pic. All other corals are growing. Here is a pic. Kinda of looks like a spider.
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Thats just a tiny feather duster, i have like 6 in my tank. 2 look just like that, one is white, and three are a very bright red color. Personaly i really like them and they dont sting or mess around with anything. So dont trouble yourself about it.
 
that's cool. wanted to get one before. will they eventually get bigger than the candycane coral? The ones i have seen in the stores have tubes that are like 6" long.
 
Yea, the dwarf ones like you have will stay tiny. There is a whole different breed of LARGE feather dusters. I have 2 that came attached to the liverock in my reef tank. I wish I could safely remove them from the rock without hurting them, but much too scared to try as they are very delicate.
 
I have two tiny red ones I discovered yesterday... good to know they're not dangerous or anything, they're isolated on a little combo rock so i'll just let them be.
 
thanks guys. so do i need to worry about moving them out of the way of other corals? they don't carry any type of sweepers like LPS, right?
 
Unless you notice it being a real nuisance to the coral it is growing near, it should be fine to leave alone. I had so many in my first tank and never noticed any corals being affected. And no, they do not have sweepers or anything of the sort. The feathers you see are actually their feeding mechanism for catching particles in the water, it's kind of like a beard on the worms face.
 
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