Is there a fish that eats feather dusters?

amy · #1 04-02-2011, 07:27 PM

Has anyone had a fish that ate feather dusters? I have too many in my tank. There are popping up between my zoas and corals and are a real pain!

They have brown tubes with a white and brown crown (not even pretty ones)

Leah · #2 04-02-2011, 07:30 PM

My cleaner shrimp used to pick at them... at least the pretty ones.... until they both died.

High tide · #3 04-02-2011, 07:35 PM

Copperband butterfly guaranteed. But they will eat every last one and have a poor survival record.

amy · #4 04-02-2011, 07:35 PM

I had one pretty purple feather duster that was on a frag I bought off another canreef member. My Wrasse ate it!!! GRRR
But she won't touch these other ones.

staceyd72 · #5 04-02-2011, 08:16 PM

Hi,
Copperband will do the job. Survival is a hit/miss. I kept one for almost five years, only prepared food that he/she would eat was Mysis, but was great at cleaning pest nems

naesco · #6 04-02-2011, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by staceyd72

Hi,
Copperband will do the job. Survival is a hit/miss. I kept one for almost five years, only prepared food that he/she would eat was Mysis, but was great at cleaning pest nems

Unfortuneately, your success with a copperband is a fairly rare exception.

Any small wrasse other than those that are algae eating should do the job.

Delphinus · #7 04-02-2011, 09:39 PM

I have a pair of C. ulietensis butterflies that eat them up like crazy. Problem is they eat everything else too. They'll turn a reef into a FOWLR.. So probably not all that helpful.

fishytime · #8 04-02-2011, 11:06 PM

possibly peppermint shrimp.....

staceyd72 · #9 04-03-2011, 12:31 AM

Hi,

Yes, I was lucky to get him/her from another reefer who managed to get the fish eating. Unfortunately, this past year it seemed to have lost its vision as it could no longer catch the food(mysis), it could sense the food was there but not able to catch it. I'd like to try another but as you said the success is fairly rare, and I don't really want to take the chance when the odds are not in my favour

I would suggest to Amy if you were to get a Copperband, maybe get one from another reefer or from a LFS that can show you it's eating. I have not know one to eat flake or pellets, only mysis, oyster, mussels, etc. and nems/feather dusters of course.

Not sure what kind of wrasse you have in mind? I've kept quite a few over the years and have not know them to eat feather dusters. However, that could be because of my Copperband taking care of them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by naesco

Unfortuneately, your success with a copperband is a fairly rare exception.

Any small wrasse other than those that are algae eating should do the job.

daniella3d · #10 04-03-2011, 12:49 AM

my copperband ate all the feather dusters in about a day or 2. Now he eats fresh mussle and live white worms like there is no tomorrow. He has grow quite a bit.

Most copperband will eat fresh clam, oyster and mussles. Mussles are cheaper.

I still have a huge aiptasia in my aquarium that I keep for making babies...all the tons of aiptasia that I had are gone now, the copperband eat them too.