4-foot Worm Found in Cornwall

Matt Slater, a curator at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay, Cornwall, England and his team were puzzled at the wreck their carefully grown coral reef had become. After weeks of watching the reef fall apart, they decided to take it apart to find the culprit. What they found was a giant reef worm!
“It really does look like something out of a horror movie! It’s over four feet long with these bizarre-looking jaws. Having done some research we also discovered that it is covered with thousands of bristles which are capable of inflicting a sting resulting in permanent numbness'.”

Matt believes it probably arrived as a juvenile in a delivery of living rock from another aquarium.

After being carefully removed the worm – which has been nicknamed ‘Barry’ by staff – has been re-located into its own tank, safely away from the coral.

Link -via Arbroath

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In my tropical fish shop days we had to deal with smaller versions of these bastards. Typically they hide by day and chew up the reef at night. They sting too. You can even buy a special trap for catching them, but I never saw one big enough to catch the big guy.
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