sgould

Well, over the past couple of days I have been working on adding a clean up crew to my tank. Shortly after adding the snails, I noticed something kind of stuck to one of the snails shells. A short time after that, it came loose and I was able to get a good look at it. It is a teeny, tiny feather duster! I have no idea how it got lodged on the snail shell, but when it came loose it took a wild ride on the currents inside the tank before finally settling into the sand. It quickly buried its body down into the sand and has left only the crown (feather) sticking out. I now have 2 concerns. The first is that he will become a tasty midnight snack for one of his room-mates, and the 2nd is feeding the little thing. I thought maybe tomorrow I would stop and see about some phytoplankton.

armadillo

Ooooh, that's cool. Wonder how you're going to knwo whether it's still alive or hiding? Maybe you'll still feed your tank phytoplanktons when you're 80 'just in case'

atmmachine816

Who are you thinking it will be eaten by? I have two baby one's also and they haven't been eaten, though I'm wondering if somebody does tell you if they should be fed phtoplankton.

sgould

Whoever. There are 2 fish, a shrimp, and several hermit crabs in there. I presume any one of them could chow down on the little guy if they decided to. I got the phytoplankton idea from the DFS site.

sgould

Well, no sign of the little guy today. It either dug itself out and moved, or someone ate it. I am kinda bummed.

armadillo

I think there's 99% chance that he dug himself, which is good news for him, but means he's that good at hiding that not only his predators won't see him, neither will you. They're amazing survivors.

sirdarksol

I don't doubt that it dug itself in. It probably will pop out periodically in the dark in order to feed. I did some research on the little guys, and they like to have access to coral rubble, as it helps them "build" themselves. They also feed on plankton (as you already know), so if you don't have a well established reef system, this guy is going to be counting on you to provide phytoplankton and liquid food, as that's going to be it's only source of food.
Good luck.

atmmachine816

I have a goby, emerald crab, two snails, and a hermit crab and they don't eat them. Mine hide a lot now since they are small, yours is probably just hiding.

sgould

I hope so. Makes it a bit difficult to help supplement his food, but I will hope for the best!

atmmachine816

Could try at night, mine come out more than

sgould

Picked up some liquid food today to put in there for it, if it is still around.