saltwater feather dusters

Question
We just did a partial water change on our saltwater tank and now all three of our feather dusters are shooting off a type of webbing. All our levels seem to be ok. What does this mean, possibly a sign of stress?

Answer
Hi Amanda. Most likely your feather dusters are simply eliminating waste. They do this from the same area that they eat from because typically the other end of their tube is either buried or closed off. Their waste will look stringy and can be brownish to white in color. Some tube worms will also produce a small amount of mucus around their crowns in order to more effectively capture the particulate matter that they feed on. Often when you clean your tank you stir up a lot of small particulate matter. This is what makes the tank look cloudy after a cleaning. Being filter feeders the tube worms capture a lot of this matter and must expel either the waste from ingesting the particles or the particles that were not suitable food. It is very common to see this behavior directly after a good cleaning.