Feathers dropping crowns...

[eederise]

Hey all,

How often have you seen feather dusters drop their crowns? I've had several strange things happening with my tank lately. One of these things is that 2 of my 4 feather dusters have lost their crowns within a couple days of each other. One is a Hawaiian and the other is a coco worm. They both appear to still be alive because I can see their little heads poking out every so often. If I touch their head, they suck back up into their tube real quick like. Please tell me the crowns will grow back and I'm just a paranoid newbie who needs to take a pill or something...

Just completed the following tests:
SG- 1.023
Alk- 2.5
Ammonia- 0
Nitrites- 0
Nitrates- 0
PH- 8.2
Calcium- 510
Phosphates- .3
Temp varies from 78-82

[tomandkris]

I had a feather duster lose half it's crown. Took almost a month for it to come back, the half that is coming back grows slow. 3 mos. and it's only half the size as the other half.

[romunov]

They drop their crowns when stressed, in your case, probably hunger. You'll have to feed them phytoplankton to keep them alive. If they have enough energy stored, they'll regrow a smaller crown.