do you mean the slotted cone shaped thing at the bottom - the intake strainer? It's actualy attached. I didn't take that part off, it's still in stock form.
On the contrary, instead of being annoyed with it being too long, I actually find it a bit too short. I've done a couple water changes (about 20% each time) and the water level dips below the intake tube so I gotta turn off the filter and prime it again once I'm done. Not a big deal and I can certainly extend the intake lower too if need be, but I'm not concerned at this point
Although I am still kinda curious about what you did with yours, I would love to see some pics
edit:
ok, I thought luck was on my side when I walked through the door when I got home to see the nasty worm sticking out of one of my pieces of rock. I immediately threw down everything and went for the worm.
By the time I got to it, the worm had already slithered back into the hole, but at least I knew which rock it was in. So I pulled the rock out of the tank and put it in a bucket and just flushed it with warm tap water. The rock was there for a few minutes but the worm didn't want to come out. After a bit of waiting, I had to put the rock back into the tank .. with the worm still in there .. somewhere.
Right now I've just got red light shinning on the tank hoping it will come out on its own.
Mine actually looks kinda like the one in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXmb9MpikyA