Feather Dusters, as they are commonly known in the hobby, are an extremely common species of marine tube worm that occur in marine environments worldwide. These animals are highly unique and are among the most popular filter feeders in the hobby. Living in a tube which they secrete themselves, feather dusters, while not capable of sight, are highly aware of their immediate environment and the flow of surrounding water. Coco Worms are unique among Feather Dusters in that they secrete a calcareous tube rather than a soft, papery one. Unlike some other typical filter feeders (clams, sponges, etc.) that force water through their body to filter out food, Feather Dusters hunt for food by sprawling out their feeding tentacles and simply using their high surface area to comb through the surrounding water as it flows by, capturing small particles of food and planktonic organisms as they do. These animals do best in an established aquarium with an abundance of copepods, amphipods and other microfauna. Additionally, feather dusters do best when regularly fed a diet of broadcasted planktonic foods, such as rotifers, phytoplankton, R.O.E. and copepods. ***Some larger predatory fishes, such as wrasses and butterflyfish, may harass or consume the external appendages of feathers dusters.
