Worms and Sea Cucumbers - Reef Life of the Andaman - Part 23

Polychaete worms and sea cucumbers. Part 23 of my DVD, “Reef Life of the Andaman“, available at or view the whole 2-hour video at First we look at a feather duster worm, Sabellastarte sp., at Shark Cave in the Burma’s Mergui Archipelago, and a hard tube coco worm, Protula bispiralis, at Richelieu Rock, north of the Similan Islands in Thailand. These polychate worms are rooted statically to the reef and feed by filtering plankton from the water with their tentacles and passing it into the central mouth. Colorful Christmas tree worms, Spirobranchus giganteus, are common at many dive sites throughout the Andaman Sea. They embed themselves into porous stony corals and are highly sensitive to disturbances. At the slightest sign of danger, the worm retracts into the coral and seals the opening. Also seen in the Mergui Archipelago, the large burrowing sea cucumber, Neothyonidium magnum, a typ