Can feather dusters hurt coral?

[chicki]

I have a zillion feather dusters! I like them but lately noticed that they are growing and embedding themselves in the skins of some of the soft corals. Does this hurt the softie??

[stephane]

I dont tink so BUT there alway exeption so in generale no

[Bob I]

I don't think so either, but would like to know how you got a zillion Featherdusters? :confused:

[chicki]

I dont know!! but I decided to remove some yesterday that were embedded in and around some corals. I took out 200 (yes I counted) There are still lots left.

[Delphinus]

They're perfectly harmless IMO. Good for biodiversity.

[StirCrazy]

did they look like this?

http://members.shaw.ca/stircrazy/critters/dusters.jpg

I have them going nuts in this one area and others in te sand through out the tank but they haven't been a problem at all.

Steve

[chicki]

Yes, except they were growing in the branching toadstools. The toadstools were not expanding as much as usual?? Don't know if it was because of the dusters or not. The corals had grown overtop of the dusters stems?? kinda weird

[kris]

Hey Chicki,

In all my tanks i have had feather dusters where in it ( i asumme this is what you are talking about picture (http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/picture_pages/faq_dusters.html) ). If so from what i have found out about them is, and as said earlyer. They are fine, adds bio diversity, they are filter feeders. If you find that they are disturbing the coral then just pull it out from around the corals. The only thing they will really do is bother the coral by growing beside the polyps. (im not to sure about SPS, i have only kept LPS and softies). I have found that my branching hammer and my colt got use to it after a little while.

Cheers!

[billc]

I have a bunch of them and they seem to mulitply like crazy.. When some fellow reefers see them I always have to get out a piece of rock for them..They are good to have in your tank..