Cool hitchhiker on my new live rock! Baby feather dusters?? Help identify please!

[whataday]

I actually already posted this question in the beginners forum, but I think it might fit better in this section. Anyway, I just bought this piece of live rock yesterday and noticed that it has what looks to be a baby feather duster (or it might be a smaller growing species) Anyway I love feather dusters and i'm very excited to see that I got him as a freebie! Im wondering if anyone can tell me the name/type this duster is and if the smaller one with two "feathers" sticking out is also a duster or something else?
I really want to get the name so I can look up all the info I can find on these and hopefully figure out it I can expect them to reproduce or spread in my tank.
Thanks a bunch for any help with this!

 

[rajkovich207]

no idea on the name but i have a bunch. good to have

 

[whataday]

Thanks for the reply rajkovich, has your reproduced or spread in your tank? How big do they get?

 

[revsgirl]

:bump2:

 

[alberthiel]

I actually already posted this question in the beginners forum, but I think it might fit better in this section. Anyway, I just bought this piece of live rock yesterday and noticed that it has what looks to be a baby feather duster (or it might be a smaller growing species) Anyway I love feather dusters and i'm very excited to see that I got him as a freebie! Im wondering if anyone can tell me the name/type this duster is and if the smaller one with two "feathers" sticking out is also a duster or something else?
I really want to get the name so I can look up all the info I can find on these and hopefully figure out it I can expect them to reproduce or spread in my tank.
Thanks a bunch for any help with this!

A close up pic would allow better ID but if you have many of these it could be a vermetid snail (which is a snail without a shell that attaches to live rock and has feeder tentacles or setae( but because the tube on one of them seem fairly large it could be something different.

Can you get a close up picture so we can see if in a larger view? That would allow ID I am sure. BTW if it is a vermetid snail it does not harm anything in the tank.

 

[Pkunk35]

I think from the tube color and shape and the crown in the pic, it looks like a serpulid featherduster, or calcareous tubeworm.

Here's a link on some more info, read up on FAQs linked at the top for very good Q&A type info:

Feather Dusters

 

[whataday]

pkunk35, thanks for the link, very informative. I wasn't able to make a positive idea though.. I looked at so many feather dusters they are all starting to blur together lol
alerthiel, I wish I could get a better picture, but with my cheep camera I don't think it will get much better than the picture posted. I will try again though.
Thanks!

 

[alberthiel]

pkunk35, thanks for the link, very informative. I wasn't able to make a positive idea though.. I looked at so many feather dusters they are all starting to blur together lol
alerthiel, I wish I could get a better picture, but with my cheep camera I don't think it will get much better than the picture posted. I will try again though.
Thanks!

It could be one of the many types of tube worms indeed and yes when you look at images of them it can get confusing as so many look alike. It is very small though for a typical Feather Duster, at least from what the picture shows and there is another one that is even smaller. It could be a different type of tube worm .. does the crown have many feathery tentacles and do they have some color in it or are they all white ?

 

[whataday]

It could be one of the many types of tube worms indeed and yes when you look at images of them it can get confusing as so many look alike. It is very small though for a typical Feather Duster, at least from what the picture shows and there is another one that is even smaller. It could be a different type of tube worm .. does the crown have many feathery tentacles and do they have some color in it or are they all white ?

The bigger one is about 1inch tall and it has light orange dots on the white feathers. Im going to try to get a better picture and post it, but my camera is not very good.

 

[alberthiel]

The bigger one is about 1inch tall and it has light orange dots on the white feathers. Im going to try to get a better picture and post it, but my camera is not very good.

Yes please do if you can but based on the description it does sound like one of the many tube worms we refer to as Feather Dusters.

 

[MandarinGirl]

I have some of those too I don't know a specific species but I think they are just a type of small feather dusters that will grow on rock. Some online sellers will sell WYSIYYG rock covered with them, and I personally think they are quite adorable. I am not sure If they will grow any bigger mine hasn't yet.