Sebae anemone eating Bristeworm and dieing?

[TomToro]

Noticed my sebae anemone was looking grey and crappy earlier today. Nothing else in the tank was bothered. The halides came on and I noticed a large bristleworm going in the mouth. The edges of this anemone look pretty bad, but the mouth part looks o.k. Will the bristleworm kill the anemone or the other way around. Anybody else have an anemone eat a bristle this size. Full length it's probably about 5" by the width of it. Should I try to remove it or will I do more harm?

thanks,
Tom

[z_rivers]

Bristle worms are scavengers and look for free food. I've had this happen to my anemones a few times. The anemone is usually expelling some waste, attracting the worm to the source, its mouth. I've seen no ill effects from this. The worm more or less irritates the anemone by climbing on it. It won't stay on your anemone for long. After it leaves the anemone should regain normal size/behavior.

EDIT: Don't try to manually remove the worm, doing this will provoke it to sting the anemone. I've never seen an anemone eat a worm, but neither of them should die from this incident.

[TomToro]

When it was out more, I tried to remove it, but the anemone curled around the tongs and it was impossible. Now my clown is in on the action and he has spikes all over him. He keeps going in for more, like he's fighting it or something.

I'll just wait it out now. Thanks for the reply,
Tom