Giant feather duster propagation

[Halal Hotdog]

Question for you guys. I have a ton of tiny feather dusters in my tank and they reproduce very well. My question is do the 'giant' feather dusters (Sabellastarte) propagate the same way. If I buy one of these large feather dusters can I expect them to asexually reproduce in my tank? I cannot find much information on lifecycle. Do I need to dose phyto or can they usually live well grabbing organics in the water?

 

[mta_morrow]

I have an awesome population of the soft tube feather dusters. I believe they are the only ones that self propagate rapidly but I am not 100%.

Let’s ask a few more folks...... #reefsquad

 

[Halal Hotdog]

I have an awesome population of the soft tube feather dusters. I believe they are the only ones that self propagate rapidly but I am not 100%.

Let’s ask a few more folks...... #reefsquad

Do you know the scientific name of the soft tube ones?

 

[mta_morrow]

Do you know the scientific name of the soft tube ones?

Softus tubimus ! [emoji23]

I do not know, but someone else may. Let’s give it some time.

 

[kireek]

I have never heard of anyone propagating the large ones.I presume that they all have to be pulled from the wild.

 

[reef lover]

No they wont reproduce like that.
They will need small particulate food items to flourish like reef roids, rotifers, zoo plankton.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

Interesting. Some sites show these guys can have an indefinitely lifespan, others state they die within a year in a reef aquarium. Any experience on that?

 

[eggplantparrot]

I have 2 medium sized soft tube feather dusters. I caught one of them spewing out white stuff in spurts in the morning. turned the tank kind of cloudy and freaked me out.I can't remember if it was the white one or the purple one. I don't see any babies anywhere

 

[eggplantparrot]

I heard they need to feed on specific sized phytoplankton so I've been dosing Brightwells phytogold everyday. I don't know if that helped with getting it to feel like reproducing or not.

 

[GThompson]

Softus tubimus ! [emoji23]

I do not know, but someone else may. Let’s give it some time.

You forgot the genus “ wormius “

 

[reef lover]

Interesting. Some sites show these guys can have an indefinitely lifespan, others state they die within a year in a reef aquarium. Any experience on that?

Generally that is because they dont get a proper supply of food. Ive had one going on 3 years now so they can and do live longer than that.

 

[eggplantparrot]

Generally that is because they dont get a proper supply of food. Ive had one going on 3 years now so they can and do live longer than that.

what do you feed yours?

 

[reef lover]

I dont feed directly. But my tank getts fed several times a day to keep the wrasses happy, many different varieties, includinh the above mentioned coral foods. I contribute that to its success.

 

[ThunderGoose]

I have a good sized feather duster who asexually reproduced so now I have two.

So at least SOME large feather dusters can reproduce in a tank.

I don't do anything special for her so I'm not sure why reproduction seems to be rare.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

I have a good sized feather duster who asexually reproduced so now I have two.

So at least SOME large feather dusters can reproduce in a tank.

I don't do anything special for her so I'm not sure why reproduction seems to be rare.

Could you post a picture of the one you have? Would be great to see which ones asexually reproduce.

 

[ThunderGoose]

Here's mine. I don't have a photo of the "offspring" because it is located in a very shaded area of the tank. I'm hoping she'll grow out of the shade eventually. The first shot is just her. The second shot shows what turned out to be the second one coming out of the same tube. You might be able to notice the shorter "feathers" on the right hand side. These showed up for a while and then disappeared. I didn't find the new one right away, she looks like she's coming out of the side (???) of the big tube. It's hard to tell because the zoas now wrap around the tube.

 

[KleineVampir]

Here's mine. I don't have a photo of the "offspring" because it is located in a very shaded area of the tank. I'm hoping she'll grow out of the shade eventually. The first shot is just her. The second shot shows what turned out to be the second one coming out of the same tube. You might be able to notice the shorter "feathers" on the right hand side. These showed up for a while and then disappeared. I didn't find the new one right away, she looks like she's coming out of the side (???) of the big tube. It's hard to tell because the zoas now wrap around the tube.

These are definitely the same breed as the ones I have. I call them Hawaiian feather dusters. You guys have been dealing with the questions I've been having. Can my feather dusters reproduce? Well now I have 6 of these that I bought. I'm hoping between the 6 of them...they can make something happen (reproduction wise). I love feather dusters and I'd love to breed them! Seems like info is very vague though. Sometimes they split, sometimes they do broadcast spawning...well which is it?! Lol. Sounds like splitting is at least one way they can reproduce. Perhaps this same species can also broadcast spawn and create the planktonic larvae. So if it's both...that's really weird but apparently the case.

 

[ThunderGoose]

I know that a lot of species of invertebrate are capable of both sexual (spawning) and asexual (splitting) reproduction. It makes sense if you think about it. They may or may not have others around to spawn with.

My "parent" is huge again (she shrank a bit when she split) and the "offspring" is growing well. It's great having them reproduce for me.

Be sure to post if yours spawn. That would be cool.

 

[KleineVampir]

How do they split though? Looks like with these guys, sabellastarte, their crown begins to look like 2 crowns. Does that mean they're splitting lengthwise? That's what it looks like to me. One in my tank even has 2 sets of crowns with a clear gap in the middle. I read somewhere that they split front to back, but that isn't what it looks like!

 

[ThunderGoose]

Mine looked like it developed two sets of crowns and then it didn't come out for a while and shortly after there were two. I'm not sure if they split front to back and shared the same tube for a while or what.