We don’t often promote violence, but this video recently posted on Break.com is quite breathtaking. It features a bobbit worm, a type of huge bristleworm that’s often found as a hitchhiker in marine aquariums, attacking a lionfish and dragging it into its burrow. The worm extends its feeding tentacles into the was, barely above the surface of the sand, which presumably attracts prey fish to venture close enough for an attack. The lionfish wanders too closely and is quickly snatched up despite appearing far larger than the worm.
The visible portion of the worm is quite misleading. Only a tiny mouth is visible, but the worms can grow to be well over 6 feet long, even in captivity. This is likely the reason why the meals have to be so large. In the aquarium, these worms don’t have near as much sand to dig into, but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous. The bobbit worms can still grow to be several feet long, and they’ve been blamed for the mysterious deaths of fish, clams, and plenty of other invertebrates.
This crystal clear video is in high def, which make the file really large and causes it to load quite slowly. If you are having difficulty viewing it on our site, feel feed to to go Break.com (link above) to see if you have better luck.
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