[ry77]

I just got my first couple pieces of live rock and they have a few small feather dusters and some small polyps...should I be giving them some type of food like plankton or something? any information would be helpful, thanks.

[Reef-Daddy]

Feather Duster Worms (that you buy) feed on particulate organic material and phytoplankton and can be difficult to sustain. But if they are like mine, (Spiral tube feather dusters) which comes as harmless volunteers into almost every tank on live rock, also feeed on particulate organic material (fish poop) and phytoplankton, are easy to maintain and probably will survive on dissolved nutrients already in your tank.

If you are referring to Button Polyp Coral (like the picture below), they are part of the Zoanthid sp. (scientific name) classified as a soft coral.

Button polyps are colonies of small anemone looking polyps similar to Sea Mats. Fine tentacles radiate out from the edge of the disc. These polyps may be connected at the base due to the way they spread by budding, but the polyps do not share a common base like Sea Mats do. Coloration is variable depending on type and are commonly shades of brown, green, yellow, pink or even red.

Feeding: Button Polyps are photosynthetic and survive with no feeding, but occasional feeding of small meaty foods like brine shrimp is beneficial and will result in faster growth.

[ry77]

Thank you,
the fearther dusters seem to be doing fine thus far (i'm assuming because they are opening and have a good reaction time when something comes near them in the tank and they withdraw,so they seem active). some of the little polyps seem to be to snall to tell what they are. there only about an eigth of an inch across and are for the most part colorless. however there is ane larger one but I'm not sure what thet is either. here are a few pictures, if anyone could tell me what they are that would be really cool, thanks.

the smaller polyps:







The larger polyp:

[RCBruce]

Not sure what you got there, but fun guessing till you know.
As for the feather dusters, which are one of my favorites, they feed on plankton. I used to use the Kent phtoplex, but have recently discovered DT's plankton and wow. I see mushrooms stretching so far they look like umbrella's. My feather dusters, which include some green and some pink one's, are loving it!
The small one's that usually come as hitchickers on LR usually don't live as long as the big one's.

[ACE]

Nice feather duster pictures,RCBruce, what type of camera did you use !!!

[ry77]

hey, I used a sony cybershot, but i didnt post a picture of the feather dusters.