Tube worm A sexual reproduction.

In these two photos, they will show a group of three cloned tube worms, from the original.

The first pic is once the rock is turned over exposing three identical tube worms "that grew in a space too hard for predators to get to the worm", all originating from the one spot.
Quite often I have seen anywhere from 30 to 100 like this from one tube worm.
With virtually all salt water carrying a multitude of predators, this does not happen in the open!

The original tube worm was a result of sexual reproduction, one will decide because of water temperature, moon cycle or what ever to expel eggs then a male senses this and expels sperm to mix in the water and this started life here, then once large enough the original worm separates with in its tube from usually 4 segments which is around 15 millimetres of its original body, they are a segmented worm species anyway and each segment can potentially represent a new complete worm.

The new one breaks through the tube and it all starts again!


As you can see by this, all come from one spot.


more info on tube worms
https://southeastqueenslandm.aforumfree.com/t1070-tube-worms-xmas-tree-worms-polychaeta-found-near-brisbane-in-seq