My feather duster decrowned today what a freaky sight to see the crown on the filter intake . Has any one experienced it , are there any other causes to them loosing their crown other than stress I personally can't find what may have stressed him other than a clown trying to host it. How long till it grows back ? Also do they move from the tube if they decrown ? I am not sure if he is still there but down in tight or not but I am not about to go poking around looking for him I will assume he is still there for now .How do they eat , I thought they used the crown to "capture" their food :???:
feather dusters fall from royalty
- Thread starter sadielynn
- Start date
mikeguerrero
Active Member
I have had several feather duster worms in my time, two of which I own now. When they shed, they usually keep their tube, just that they stay in it for about 1 week.
End result is them peaking their head out of the old tube to reveal a small crown. If they ditch the tube all together, they usually cling on to the rock or substrate with a fraction of what can be a tube in the making.
In other words, they cannot retract into the new tube as it's not long enough to hide them yet, they build and build and with time it's long again.
You can tell if it decided to keep the old tube but looking at the end of the tube, if it's closed, pinched, they are in it, some how they close the end themselves, I guess it's for protection.
Mike
End result is them peaking their head out of the old tube to reveal a small crown. If they ditch the tube all together, they usually cling on to the rock or substrate with a fraction of what can be a tube in the making.
In other words, they cannot retract into the new tube as it's not long enough to hide them yet, they build and build and with time it's long again.
You can tell if it decided to keep the old tube but looking at the end of the tube, if it's closed, pinched, they are in it, some how they close the end themselves, I guess it's for protection.
Mike
Thanks Mike I have seen him close the end on occasion but more time not than did. So I would guess that I have a 50/50 chance that he is still there ? I am a little worried as to what stressed him I want to fix it if I can . I guess I may never really know what bugged him , When I told the hubby about it he was bummed he really likes the feather dusters , he asked can we get another , I answered him not right now maybe in a couple of months if he is gone :sad:
mikeguerrero
Active Member
Just give him one more week, he should show at that time his descision to vacate or stay.
Mike
Mike
A
Anonymous
Guest
saddie, i have never had good luck with feathers, i've tried them like three or four times now and they always live less then a year and then either perish or lose their crown. I don't know what the deal is - maybe they just don't live that long - they are a worm after all and who knows the life expectency????? I like your husband real enjoy them - wish i had better luck is all. leave the tube in there it will not decompose very rapidly anyway and hopefully it was just sheading??
I am not sure they have to be stressed to loose their crown, I have had one loose its crown with no provocation at all. It makes me thing that they may also have a need to grow a new crown for whatever reason. My experience it pretty much like already described, they loose the crown then a week or so later they start peeking out with a new but smaller crown (it keeps growing until its back to normal). I wish you good luck, Skip
its happened to me as well,but it took my feather duster a month or so to reapear! i think mine lost its crown cos my blenny kept picking up the tube and throwing it across the tank! i moved the feather duster worm into my nano tank and he was doing fine but now he's lost it again! :shock: i think their just hard animals to keep.