The tubeworms use some of these sugars as food. The tubeworms provide the bacteria with hydrogen sulfide and oxygen that they takes up from the water. Tubeworms live at the boundary where hot hydrothermal fluid mixes with cold seawater. At other times, the plumes are in 4 C water. The plumes absorb hydrogen sulfide from the hot water and oxygen from the cold water.
Scientists know little about how tubeworms reproduce.
There are male and female tubeworms. However, scientists don't know how the young disperse from vent site to vent site. Tubeworms are among the first animals to colonize a new vent site.