Tiny Feather Dusters

[bigblue141]

Is there a fish or any other critter out there that anyone knows of that will eat these?

I have thousands of little tubes housing baby feather dusters all over my entire system and am growing tired of scraping them off my glass. They come and go on the rocks and I currently have an explosion of them all over in my fuge.

 

[Boomer]

Copper Banded Butterfly fish

 

[bigblue141]

I have one...

Only thing he's eating is Mysis and my copepods... Maybe when he gets bigger he will eat the Aiptasia that I'm tired of nuking.

He's a dud so far as being a CBB.

 

[Jesse_emel]

I had a rock with about 50 of those tiny feather dusters on it. I pulled it from one tank and stuck it in my BoiCube 29 gal. The 2 peppermint shrimp in that tank jumped on those things like a fat kid on a cupcake. They are all gone along with their tubes.

 

[bigblue141]

I have peppermints in my tank too. I'm not sure what they eat, but it's not aiptasia, worms, or corals.

 

[Bored4ever86]

my 6line liked to atleast pick at them, not sure if ate them but he was certainly interested. though he got suspicious when i'd check him out while he was checking out the tube worms...

 

[jgalvin]

Is there a fish or any other critter out there that anyone knows of that will eat these?

I have thousands of little tubes housing baby feather dusters all over my entire system and am growing tired of scraping them off my glass. They come and go on the rocks and I currently have an explosion of them all over in my fuge.

shoot, i though feather dusters were good to have, but i guess 1000's would be much. perhaps see if its just a bloom and let them run their course.

 

[bigblue141]

shoot, i though feather dusters were good to have, but i guess 1000's would be much. perhaps see if its just a bloom and let them run their course.

They have been on a bloom for the last year now. I'm just growing VERY tired of scraping them off DT everyother day. Sometimes I wish I had the algae back that I had to clean off everyother day instead...

 

[ac7av]

I can understand your frustration about them. They are so very good for you system its almost a shame to try and get them out of your tank. I wish I had some in my tank now, I miss having them in there. You are probably going to be of luck for anything that will even control them in your tank that would not destroy everything else in the tank. Sea urchins and starfish will eat them but you know what else those kind like to eat. Just about everything. I personally found that heavier feeding caused them to multiply faster. If there is not enough nutrients in the water to sustain them, they will not spread so fast. I believe these are filter feeders and get no energy from the light. You will probably find they are heavily covering areas in the shadows.

 

[tat2z_21]

I have 5 kids that would gladly come over and remove them for you, for a nominal fee. My youngest actually snorkels and scrapes them from the glass.