mhaley98
Community Member
So I went through the progress of having my feather duster worm (Dusty) drop his crown, and as a new-ish tank owner (6 months new to the hobby), this was the most stressful experience I have had to go through so far. I thought I would share my experience for those going through the same experience that I did, to save you all from some of the stress that I went through. The photos are in backwards order.
Around late November, I increased my alkalinity and flow in my tank suddenly, which I believe could be some of the possible reasons for the event. In response, my worm started doing a weird thing that alluded to the dropping, which was sort of twisting of his crown. When I would run my hand over the light, he went back into his tube, but didn't pull the crown in fully, which was also abnormal behavior for Dusty. Eventually, I noticed that the crown didn't respond to quick water flow with the turkey baster, and it was at that moment that I knew that I had messed up.
Dusty then Dropped his crown, and with extensive research I learned that there was a chance that Dusty could come back and regrow his crown over time, possibly larger and more beautiful than before. I am here to verify that this is exactly what happened. I have included some photos to show his progression!
The "he's beautiful" and photo in the acclimation container are of Dusty when I first got him, on September 23rd. I thought he was beautiful then, but he only got better with time.
Then the drop happened, and he was just a tube. I was scared he had crawled out of the tube, because it looked empty and hollow, but then as time went on, I could see that the once transparent part of the tube had a worm in it again! (I later realized that his tube had grown substantially in length under my sand bed, and that he was definitely hiding at the bottom of the tube to recover.
About 2 weeks after the initial drop, I would come sneak up on the tank at night time and see this extremely tiny looking new crown coming out of the tube. He was extremely cautious and any changes in light would make him immediately retreat back into his tube. I was so excited that my boy was back. I then invested in some fresh, good quality Phyto plankton and made sure to dose regularly.
The photo where he looks small was from December 9th, after some substantial growth from the original small, dinky crown that he was regrowing. I would target feed with some Phyto to make sure he had the nutrition he needed to keep growing.
The photo where dusty looks medium in size is from Dec 18th, with some pretty substantial growth in literally less than 2 weeks.
The big photo is of him now! He is currently moving his tube to face the other direction, I think because the area where his head pointed before had too much turbulence for him, which is what lead me to believe that the change in flow may had been one of the reasons for the dropped crown. (I have a small 15 gallon tank, and have no other options for where I place my power head, and it has no drop down power settings.)
As you can see, Dusty is back in full force, and is definitely bigger and more beautiful than he was when I had first picked him up from my LFS.
DON'T GIVE UP HOPE. DON'T REMOVE THE TUBE. LEAVE IT ALONE AND JUST MAKE SURE YOUR PARAMETERS ARE AS STABLE AS POSSIBLE. ONCE IT COMES BACK, MAKE SURE YOU ARE DOSING YOUR TANK REGULARLY WITH PHYTO. LIVE AND LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES, THAT'S THE BEAUTY OF THIS HOBBY! YOUVE GOT THIS! (Thank you for coming to my TED talk)
Around late November, I increased my alkalinity and flow in my tank suddenly, which I believe could be some of the possible reasons for the event. In response, my worm started doing a weird thing that alluded to the dropping, which was sort of twisting of his crown. When I would run my hand over the light, he went back into his tube, but didn't pull the crown in fully, which was also abnormal behavior for Dusty. Eventually, I noticed that the crown didn't respond to quick water flow with the turkey baster, and it was at that moment that I knew that I had messed up.
Dusty then Dropped his crown, and with extensive research I learned that there was a chance that Dusty could come back and regrow his crown over time, possibly larger and more beautiful than before. I am here to verify that this is exactly what happened. I have included some photos to show his progression!
The "he's beautiful" and photo in the acclimation container are of Dusty when I first got him, on September 23rd. I thought he was beautiful then, but he only got better with time.
Then the drop happened, and he was just a tube. I was scared he had crawled out of the tube, because it looked empty and hollow, but then as time went on, I could see that the once transparent part of the tube had a worm in it again! (I later realized that his tube had grown substantially in length under my sand bed, and that he was definitely hiding at the bottom of the tube to recover.
About 2 weeks after the initial drop, I would come sneak up on the tank at night time and see this extremely tiny looking new crown coming out of the tube. He was extremely cautious and any changes in light would make him immediately retreat back into his tube. I was so excited that my boy was back. I then invested in some fresh, good quality Phyto plankton and made sure to dose regularly.
The photo where he looks small was from December 9th, after some substantial growth from the original small, dinky crown that he was regrowing. I would target feed with some Phyto to make sure he had the nutrition he needed to keep growing.
The photo where dusty looks medium in size is from Dec 18th, with some pretty substantial growth in literally less than 2 weeks.
The big photo is of him now! He is currently moving his tube to face the other direction, I think because the area where his head pointed before had too much turbulence for him, which is what lead me to believe that the change in flow may had been one of the reasons for the dropped crown. (I have a small 15 gallon tank, and have no other options for where I place my power head, and it has no drop down power settings.)
As you can see, Dusty is back in full force, and is definitely bigger and more beautiful than he was when I had first picked him up from my LFS.
DON'T GIVE UP HOPE. DON'T REMOVE THE TUBE. LEAVE IT ALONE AND JUST MAKE SURE YOUR PARAMETERS ARE AS STABLE AS POSSIBLE. ONCE IT COMES BACK, MAKE SURE YOU ARE DOSING YOUR TANK REGULARLY WITH PHYTO. LIVE AND LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES, THAT'S THE BEAUTY OF THIS HOBBY! YOUVE GOT THIS! (Thank you for coming to my TED talk)
Are there limitations on making posts about the same topic? If so, there would be a heck of a lot less threads on this website, and frankly, no need for people to make new posts, as most questions have likely been answered already.
