Polychaete worms and sea cucumbers. Part 23 of my DVD, "Reef Life of the Andaman", available at //www.bubblevision.com/marine-life-DVD.htm

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 type of Echinoderm, is another filter feeder. It roots itself into the substrate and holds its outer tentacles in the current. When it has captured sufficient plankton the tentacles reach down toward the centre, allowing the smaller inner tentacles to scoop the food into the mouth.

The Graeffe's sea cucumber, Pearsonothuria graeffei, is common at shallow depths in the Andaman Sea, for example at dive sites around Racha Yai. Its mouth contains 25 adhesive black tentacles which it uses to walk over the reef and to pick up food from the substrate.

The mouth of the amberfish sea cucumber, Thelenota anax, contains 18 tentacles and is underneath the body. After digesting what it can from the material it has ingested from the seabed, the waste products are expelled at the anus. The sea cucumber also breathes through the anus by sucking water in and out.

The full narration is available as English, German or Spanish subtitles by turning on the closed captions (CC). There are also closed captions available showing scientific and common names of the marine life in English, German or Dutch, along with dive site names.

"Reef Life of the Andaman" is being serialised weekly on YouTube. Please subscribe to my channel to receive notifications of new episodes as I release them. The series features descriptions of 213 different marine species including more than 100 tropical fish, along with sharks, rays, moray eels, crabs, lobsters, shrimps, sea slugs, cuttlefish, squid, octopus, turtles, sea snakes, starfish, sea cucumbers, corals, worms etc..

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//www.bubblevision.com

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The video was shot by Nick Hope with a Sony VX2000 DV camera in a Gates housing. It was edited in Sony Vegas Pro then deinterlaced with QTGMC and upscaled to 720p HD in AviSynth.

Thanks to Santana Diving of Phuket (//www.santanaphuket.com), to Elfi and Uli Erfort and Daniel Bruehwiler for help with the German translation, and to Frank Nelissen for the Dutch subtitles.

Full list of polychaete worms, sea cucumbers and dive sites featured in this video:

00:00 Feather Duster Worm, Sabellastarte sp., Shark Cave
00:05 Hard Tube Coco Worm, Protula bispiralis, Richelieu Rock
00:14 Christmas Tree Worms, Spirobranchus giganteus, Koh Tachai
00:19 Christmas Tree Worm, Spirobranchus giganteus, Racha Noi
00:22 Christmas Tree Worm, Spirobranchus giganteus, Little Torres
00:26 Christmas Tree Worms, Spirobranchus giganteus, Koh Tachai
00:36 Christmas Tree Worms, Spirobranchus giganteus, Silvertip Bank
00:42 Christmas Tree Worms, Spirobranchus giganteus, Koh Tachai
00:50 Christmas Tree Worm, Spirobranchus giganteus, Little Torres
00:55 Christmas Tree Worm, Spirobranchus giganteus, Gabi's Reef, Racha Noi
01:00 Large Burrowing Sea Cucumber, Neothyonidium magnum, Moving Wall
01:17 Large Burrowing Sea Cucumber, Neothyonidium magnum, Black Rock
01:48 Graeffe's Sea Cucumber, Pearsonothuria graeffei, South Twin
01:52 Graeffe's Sea Cucumber, Pearsonothuria graeffei, Staghorn Reef, Racha Yai
02:15 Graeffe's Sea Cucumber, Pearsonothuria graeffei, Home Run, Racha Yai
02:33 Amberfish Sea Cucumber, Thelenota anax, Racha Noi
02:49 Amberfish Sea Cucumber, Thelenota anax, Bay 4, Racha Yai
03:06 Graeffe's Sea Cucumber, Pearsonothuria graeffei, North Point, Racha Noi
03:16 Graeffe's Sea Cucumber, Pearsonothuria graeffei, Koh Ha