Photosynthesis is the process by which plants use the sun’s energy to make sugar (glucose) for food. Chemosynthesis is the process by which food (glucose) is made by bacteria using chemicals as the energy source, rather than sunlight.

All chemosynthetic organisms use energy released by chemical reactions to make a sugar, but different species use different pathways. For example, at hydrothermal vents, vent bacteria oxidize hydrogen sulfide, add carbon dioxide and oxygen, and produce sugar, sulfur, and water: CO2 + 4H2S + O2 -> CH20 + 4S + 3H2O.

The tube worm looks like a long white tube with an odd bright red nail called a plume or a giant paintbrush. Inside the tube the body of the worm is colorless. The tube worm can grow up to nine feet long and can live 170 to 250 years. The tube worm’s red plume is food for fish, crabs, and other sea creatures.

Few deep sea creatures such as deep sea crabs and shrimps, large brown mussels and giant clams are predators of giant tube worms (they feed on plumes).

The world’s heaviest worms thrive in an extreme environment. Their gills, which resemble foot-long red feathers, can be a vulnerable target for predators. The worms can quickly retract their gills into the tube if a hungry predator, like a vent crab, ventures too close.

Chemosynthetic bacteria are the primary producers in these communities. They exist both as free-living organisms and in a symbiotic relationship within the cells or body of other organisms, such as the tube worm Riftia pachyptila (Figure 1).

Why are Terrebellids called spaghetti worms? They have long, thin, white, extendable tentacles. They pick up food particles in their tentacles with the grooves. Move them to the mouth and sort the particles according to the size.