Hitchhikers - Advice Needed!

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KellyFrancis

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 14, 2012
1,303
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Somerset WI
I just remodeled my tank yesterday when I did my first water change and added 10 lbs of LR to it. I also got 4 hermit crabs and 5 snails. This morning, I was saying good morning to my little buddies when I noticed that I have a teeny tiny starfish on the back pane of glass. I started looking around for more hitchhikers and I found two feather dusters. I have a bottle of "Microvert" that I got with the tank so I squirted some of that in, hoping to feed the little guys. I did some quick research online, but wanted your opinion:

1.) How do I best care for my feater dusters and starfish?
2.) What kind of light do they need?
3.) Is the microvert enough for the feather dusters? What about the starfish? He just eats algae, right?
4.) It said online that the feather dusters will eat meaty foods, so before I feed my fish shrimp, should I run it through the blender so they can eat it too?
5.) What kinds of tankmates are best avoided with feather dusters and starfish?

I'm so excited! Any help you guys can offer would be great! Thanks!
 
And my starfish is gone. Went to church, came back no more than two hours later, and he was gone. Is there anyway to know if he's still alive?
 
You probably have more then one tiny starfish, and unless they get big you likely wont see them often. You shouldn't have to target feed it, likely it will get all it needs from algae on rocks, and waste products of fish/inverts. As for the dusters, generally filter feeders like that need small to tiny food particels like phytoplancton or bacteria (bacteria is in your water column) you can "feed" phytoplanton easily enough by squirting a bit onto the worm every so often. A good rule of thumb to go with when looking at what filter feeders eat is the appearance of their "feeders" they lighter and fluffier they are the smaller the food particle they eat, if they look more stringy or tentactly (not a word lol) then in all likely hood they eat bigger meaty items like Copepods, baby shrimp etc.
 
Kevin8888 said:
You probably have more then one tiny starfish, and unless they get big you likely wont see them often. You shouldn't have to target feed it, likely it will get all it needs from algae on rocks, and waste products of fish/inverts. As for the dusters, generally filter feeders like that need small to tiny food particels like phytoplancton or bacteria (bacteria is in your water column) you can "feed" phytoplanton easily enough by squirting a bit onto the worm every so often. A good rule of thumb to go with when looking at what filter feeders eat is the appearance of their "feeders" they lighter and fluffier they are the smaller the food particle they eat, if they look more stringy or tentactly (not a word lol) then in all likely hood they eat bigger meaty items like Copepods, baby shrimp etc.
Click to expand...

Ok. thanks. I was righting something my fish knocked over earlier and got close to it and it sucked back down into its shell-thing so how do I target feed it? Do I just pick a spot in the flow where I know it will work its way over to the duster? It is tiny right now and looks like really fine...well...dusters. And just because I don't know, what is in the Kent Microvert stuff? Is that, by chance, phytoplankton or something similar?
 
If I HAD to hazard a guess I would say its one of those Hawaiian ones I've seen on liveaquaria. Mind there is no more basis for this guess than the general color of the feathery part. But that's the best I got. How do you tell what species they are, anyhow? And can you when they are so tiny? I'd say the feathery part is only like a 1/4 inch across.
 
If they are that small you probably wont need to target feed them... but if you want to just turn of your water flow for a half hour or so, and just "dump" (not litterally) a small amount directly over them, be gentel as they will retract if you disturbe them. IDing worms is nigh impossible beyond their general family as there are far to many types, and they all look similar. Kent Microvert should work.
 
If that star fish is white get it out of there if you have any coral in the tank :D
 
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