Broken Carapace Feather Duster

Anyone see a feather duster outside its shell? I saw what I thought was a strange caterpillar yesterday at the reef fish store and I had to inquire about. "What the hell is this?" 'Oh, that's a feather duster that broke out of its shell.' "Are you ****ting me?" 'lol nope, you can see the shell next to it.' "Wow, I thought it was just a plant."

 

I bought a new feather duster a month or so ago, which my peppermint shrimp immediately tried to dismantle. In trying to rescue the poor thing, I dumped it in the mantis tank (no acclimation). The next day, it came apart and I could just see the worm. I figured it was doomed. I heard they could "drop their crown" if stressed and grown another back, but this poor thing looked more like torn apart than dropped crown! I kind of buried the whole thing with a little bit sticking out of the sand. That was weeks ago. I almost yanked it out and threw it away the other day because it looked "dead." A few days ago when I was feeding the mantis tank, the feather duster's crown popped out again! I was floored.

 

Nice!