Christmas Tree Worm Diet

The food then passes down a groove pushed by their ciliary tracts which are lines of tiny hair like extensions on the sources of cells that create water currents to direct digestion.

Christmas tree worm diet. Like most tube worms christmas tree worms need sustained healthy feeding to survive. Christmas tree worms are ciliary feeders which means they use cilia tiny hair like bristles on their appendages to catch food as it passes by. Christmas tree worms spirobranchus giganteus are polychaete ciliary feeders that feed using their radioles the hair like appendages or feathers that circle outward from the central spine to catch phytoplankton floating by in the water.

Each worm has two brightly colored crowns that protrude from its tube like body. This somewhat specialized diet along with this species intolerance for strong direct water movement make it somewhat difficult to feed. They aren t very big averaging about 1 5 inches in length.

The christmas tree worm is purely a filter feeding species whose diet should consist of plankton foods in the currents and should be supplemented with liquid plankton based foods. These appendages are used to catch dinner floating by in the water usually microscopic plants and animals. You won t find spirobranchus giganteus also known as the christmas tree worm eating your fir tree this year.