feather duster worm HELP!!

[pinkfeatherdust]

I woke up this morning and both my feather dusters were laying on the sand with holes EVERYWHERE on the top half of them (the parts that were sticking above the the sand the night before, while the bottom half that was wedged into the sand has no holes). What happened??? Did one of my fishes attack it?? did it makes the holes itself because its dying?? What's going on??

Thanks in Advance.

[bertoni]

[welcome]

So something made holes in the featherduster tubes? That could be a lot of animals. Hermit crabs, crabs, and fish are possibilities. What's in the system?

[pinkfeatherdust]

1 orange spotted sleeper goby about 1.75 inches and 3 blue leg hermit crab and 3 red leg hermit crab (1-2cm big).
It looks like someone drilled holes into the tubes =( The holes all look about the same size too and spread out pretty evenly along the tube. However, the colour of the tube hasn't changed from before.
Is it dying? Will they grow back crowns?

[bertoni]

What kind of tube does this worm have? Is it rock-like?

[pinkfeatherdust]

I have 3 pink feather dusters.
One of them has a rock like tube, which is the one that does not have holes in them.
The other two, which have holes all over them now, have a just a little bit of rock on the other end of the tube (where the crown isn't). The holes are located on the half closer to the crown.

[bertoni]

Hmm, I'd guess the hermit crabs, but it could be a predatory snail. You could try watching at night to see whether you can catch the culprit in the act.

The featherdusters might survive, but most of the large ones have a fairly poor survival rate over the long haul. They are hard to feed.

[pinkfeatherdust]

So you think someone is biting them and that it's not some kind of tube disease?

Alright, I'll keep an eye on the dusters tonight.

Thanks so much!

[bertoni]

I don't think it's a tube disease. A hole in the tube implies a predator.

[pinkfeatherdust]

I failed to mention I also have a red scooter blenny. I forgot about him lol.
So I was watching my dusters for any sign of life and one of the worms stuck part of its head out of the tube! Well, the entire crown appears to be gone, but the worm sticks out once in a while about 1-1.5cm out of the tube. I can see the rest of the worm through the holes of the tube.
My other duster, I can see part of the worm sometimes when it moves closer to the end of the tube where the holes are but other then that, it hasn't come out yet.
I picked both of them off the sand and placed them into the holes of my live rocks and then I after a while, I saw one of them roll down the rock onto my other rock, and then roll down again on the sand.......

[baldomero]

i had the same problem it was my hermits they totally ate through the tube of the Featherdusters.

[FragMan07]

Hermit Crabs for sure. Happened to me, vicious little critters.

[pinkfeatherdust]

So what do you recommend I do to help them survive?

[FragMan07]

Gotta let nature take its course.

You can try removing the hermit crabs manually, but a good rule of thumb around here is to not micromanage your tank. Nature will always win.

Reefs have been around for millions of years without human help.

[pinkfeatherdust]

But I've only had this tank for about 2 months. Will there be enough protein for them to rebuild??
How long will it take before the little holes close up and for the crowns to grow back?

[pinkfeatherdust]

Not to mention, this is my first reef tank, or tank for that matter...
Am I jumping into the hobby too quickly?

[FragMan07]

I started out with one featherduster/tubeworm. It's been 8 months since the first one came up and now there are 25+ all around him. If your tank is healthy and the levels are stable, you will see them grow back in numberous amounts.

I've actually had to trim a couple with tweezers cause they were irritating my zooanthids.

Believe me, it's like a haircut, they'll come back.

[pinkfeatherdust]

Is there anything you recommend me supplementing them with to encourage growth?

[FragMan07]

Nothing special. Do regular water changes, clean your glass, and let the tank naturally filter as much as possible. Best advice I can give.

[pinkfeatherdust]

Alright!
Thanks a lot for your help!

[bertoni]

I'd remove the hermit crabs. They are predatory in general.

The featherdusters would do better with some phytoplankton, like DT's.