feather dusters? help?

[Darkangel]

hey all, good to see ya again. ok heres my dilema, i have what appears to be hundreds if not thousands of small half inch long no wider then mechanical pencil lead feather dusters or fans? in my tank. I noticed a small colony of them about a month ago and i thought "aww, how cute with thier white 1/8th inch spread with lil red bands . Then i realized a week later that they were multiplying at an astonishing rate. but as i was busy working two jobs and trying to impress a new gf, i didnt have the time to battle them so i left them alone. BIG mistake. Now they are everywhere, behind , under and in my live rock and even covering my sand bed! I got a tiny lil guy about every half inch or so in it. Now that i am back to one job and I have finished impressing my lady for the moment (she's securely in my clutches, muahaha), I am ready to wage war! RAWR! But what to do about em? I tried a water change tonight and musta sucked 'em up by the hundreds but there are still thousands more. GRRR....any ideas? please? lol. As i said before the body is very small and about half an inch long, brown (looks like a fish turd) but with a white fan with red bands. They suck inside themselves when they are disturbed. any ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance,

Aaron,
8O

 

[Anonymous]

(reply to http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=37168 instead)

 

[fungia]

they are harmless so i dont worry about them myself.

 

[Anonymous]

You are keeping a REEF tank remember? :roll: For cryin out loud, relax.
All these little critters are what makes a tank interesting. If you don't want this, fill your tank with concrete rocks next time instead of live rock.

Jim

 

[DOGMAI]

I also have millions of these little things. Fortunately they don’t seem to spread onto the rock that is directly under the light. They stay mostly in the back of the tank in one corner. They are on the sand under the light but not on the rocks. Mine are starting to cover the back glass in one corner of the tank. While it is a sign of a healthy tank the shear numbers are a problem for me. It would be nice if there was something that would eat them. They are just ugly because the crown is too small to really see well. So it just looks like brown worms all over each other. I will try to get a pic today so you can see how bad they are in my tank.

Shane

 

[Anonymous]

An arrow crab will prolly eat them, but they prolly will also eat other stuff too.

You are keeping a REEF tank remember? :roll: For cryin out loud, relax.
All these little critters are what makes a tank interesting. If you don't want this, fill your tank with concrete rocks next time instead of live rock.

Lets all remember that this board is here to help answer peoples questions, and that at one time all of us had basic questions we needed answered, so lets try to answser them without flames. :mrgreen:

 

[cdeakle]

I have the same thing going on.

They are everywhere, BY THE THOUSANDS.....

I like em and they look cool but man they are everywhere. If even half of them make it to full size I will have a saltwater feather duster garden and not a reef tank.

 

[Anonymous]

Heh, it wasn't meant to be a flame. Nevertheless I apologize if my tone was such. All I meant was, there is a myriad of little critters that grow in a healthy reef tank. This is one of the great benefits of using live rock to seed a system. Fretting over them is counterproductive and useless.
Eventually, your corals will cover most of your rock anyway, so it's really not an issue. I have these little guys all over the place, but in my mature systems, they don't stand out so much.

Cheers
Jim

 

[teevee]

If even half of them make it to full size I will have a saltwater feather duster garden and not a reef tank.

What you see is probably full size. The common hitchhiking type is not the same as the large ones sold by the LFS'.

Note that they do not like bright lights, and that many types of shrimps (cleaners I have found in my case) will eat them.

 

[Darkangel]

hey all, thank you for the info, all of you Jim your right about them being interesting and i do like them alot but like dogmai said is just the sheer numbers of them that are a problem for me, and they do lok lik elil brown worms heh. I will throw in a couple cleaner shrimp perhaps or an arrow crab. They do however look kinda cool in the sand bed , I can only see the tops of them there really, so i think i'll keep them down there if posible. This is why i love this site because of all you people helping each other out, keep up the good work guys. Thanks again.

Aaron,

 

[cdeakle]

Sweet,

I thought these things were gonna get giant sized. What a relief. I don't mind if things get ate up in my tank. I get upset when I loose life without a good reason. So here shrimpy shrimpy shrimpy

 

[Anonymous]

An arrow crab will prolly eat them, but they prolly will also eat other stuff too.

You are keeping a REEF tank remember? :roll: For cryin out loud, relax.
All these little critters are what makes a tank interesting. If you don't want this, fill your tank with concrete rocks next time instead of live rock.

Lets all remember that this board is here to help answer peoples questions, and that at one time all of us had basic questions we needed answered, so lets try to answser them without flames. :mrgreen:

Oh, screw you, Righty, Mr. Preachy high & Mighty! GEESE! :roll: HD runs away....



:lol:




Back on topic- yo! leave 'em alone. They will consume things that otherwise feeds THE DREADED VALONIA and other irritating nuisance algae that I guarantee will be a much bigger problem for you. Feathers are nice!

Here's a neat one, although not tiny-

 

[Anonymous]

yeh i also have bazillions of these in many shapes and colors - from brown/white to red to EEEENTSY WEENTSY little purple ones ... and i wuv them all.

 

[kleinfreak]

I just discovered about 10 of these in a new piece of rock I added to my 55. What do they eat? (yes, yes, yes, filter the water I know) Anything I can add to assist in their multiplication? Tanks only been up about 2 weeks...it could use a little extra life at this point.

One of them is a beautiful red with white tips, much like HD's

 

[Anonymous]

Kleinfreak...only thing i can recommend with the little feather duster is phytoplankton, especially since you have very tiny ones...they cant eat any larger food...I have two Hawaiin feather dusters and i feed them 1-2 times a week with either micro-vert or corallife invert smorgassboard...they outta do just fine in the tank alone...dont rush your tank...let nature take its course, its more fun..TRUST ME....I learned the hard way trying to hurry a tank...

 

[kleinfreak]

...dont rush your tank...let nature take its course, its more fun..TRUST ME....(

Can do, We'll chill out for a while.