Feather duster problems

cat910064 · Feb 4, 2023

Have a decent amount of feather duster growing all over my softies. The clover and zoa has been colonized by many tube worms or feather duster. The zoa is now closing

don’t really want to get rid of them manually, is there any biocontrol that can wipe them out? I heard people have luck with bumble bee snails? Any thoughts?

cat910064 · Feb 4, 2023

Have a decent amount of feather duster growing all over my softies. The clover and zoa has been colonized by many tube worms or feather duster. The zoa is now closing

don’t really want to get rid of them manually, is there any biocontrol that can wipe them out? I heard people have luck with bumble bee snails? Any thoughts?

Fishy888 · Feb 4, 2023

It sounds like you have aiptasia in your system. Can you take some pictures under white light? If these creatures have tubes are they white or a reddish color? If they are reddish they’re most likely vermatid snails.

cat910064 · Feb 4, 2023

Fishy888 said:
It sounds like you have aiptasia in your system. Can you take some pictures under white light?

Nah I’m pretty sure it’s feather duster
I’m not worried about it til recently they grow all over on some of my corals

cat910064 · Feb 4, 2023

AydenLincoln · Feb 4, 2023

Can you post a photo under white light?

cat910064 · Feb 4, 2023

AydenLincoln said:
Can you post a photo under white light?

Sorry about the bad light.

AydenLincoln · Feb 4, 2023

cat910064 said:
Sorry about the bad light.

I’d manually remove them with tweezer and try a coral/hydrogen peroxide dip just be careful of dipping zoas because of the possibility of palytoxin.

fishguy242 · Feb 4, 2023

hi, depending on tank size ,look into wrasse

Clarkjw2002 · Feb 4, 2023

First you need to confirm whether they are feather dusters or vermetid snails. From your description of irritating your zoas I would guess vermetids.

If that is the case you really are SOL and need to remove manually. I seem to have had luck once with a yellow Coris wrasse in one tank but was never ablate repeat in future tanks. Bumble bee snails never worked for me and my current melanurus wrasse doesn't seem to care for them. After 2 or 3 yrs they sort of fade to the background and your tank learns to live around them--at least my current set up has.

I'm still trying to prevent them all together in my retirement build.

If really feather dusters a wrasse will probably harass/eat enough to provide relief.

LordofCinder · Feb 4, 2023

bumble snails are normally suggested for vermetid worms, not feather dusters.

Can you post a pic of the pests?

cat910064 · Feb 4, 2023

Clarkjw2002 said:
First you need to confirm whether they are feather dusters or vermetid snails. From your description of irritating your zoas I would guess vermetids.

If that is the case you really are SOL and need to remove manually. I seem to have had luck once with a yellow Coris wrasse in one tank but was never ablate repeat in future tanks. Bumble bee snails never worked for me and my current melanurus wrasse doesn't seem to care for them. After 2 or 3 yrs they sort of fade to the background and your tank learns to live around them--at least my current set up has.

I'm still trying to prevent them all together in my retirement build.

If really feather dusters a wrasse will probably harass/eat enough to provide relief.

The fans are really obvious and big so I would say turn worm or feather duster.