Cuttlefish

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Cuttlefish
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Fascinating cuttlefish

• Despite their common name, cuttlefish are not
  fish but mollusks.
• The eye of the cuttlefish, like that of the
  squid, has a very similar design to our own.
• Cuttlefish blood looks blue-green because it uses
  the pigment hemocyanin to carry oxygen.
• Cuttlefish fish have the remarkable ability to
  rapidly alter their skin color at will.
• Cuttlefish eat small molluscs, crabs, shrimp,
  fish and other cuttlefish.
• The cuttlefish has tentacles along with a mantle
  that had a calcium based cuttlebone which forms
  the shape of the body.
• They have eight arms and two tentacles, which
  consist of denticulated suckers. Between the
  tentacles, one can find a beak-like mouth.

• The eye of the cuttlefish

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Distinguishing features

• The cuttlefish is so called because they have a
  bone in the middle of their bodies, known as a
  cuttlebone, filled with gas, which is used as a
  buoyancy control device.
• Averaging about 30cm in length (giant cuttlefish
  can grow up to 100cm), they have eight arms and
  two prehensile (capable of grasping) tentacles
  around their parrot-like beak.
• Their eyes are remarkably similar in construction
  to human eyes and there is an unmistakable
  feeling that you are dealing with a creature of
  intelligence when you find yourself in a staring
  contest with a cuttlefish
• Mating cuttlefish align their bodies head to head
  so the male can transfer a sealed package of
  sperm into a pouch beneath the female's mouth.
  The female then scurries off to a quiet place
  where she draws eggs from her cavity and passes
  them over the sperm, thereby fertilizing them.

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Diving with cuttlefish

• Unlike their squid and octopus cousins, baby
  cuttlefish are already highly developed and
  independent straight hatching.
• The main predators of cuttlefish are sharks, fish
  and other cuttlefish. Dolphins also attack
  cuttlefish but strangely eat only the heads.
• Cuttlefish are widely distributed according to
  species. For example the European common
  cuttlefish is found all along the eastern
  Atlantic from Scandinavia to South Africa and the
  Mediterranean. Most other species, such as the
  flamboyant cuttlefish, are found in Asian waters
  and in Australasia. They are not found in
  American waters.

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Cuttlefish reproduction

• Adult cuttlefish are hard to sex and the only
  100 reliable way to sex a live one is to see it
  mating or laying eggs.
• However, a male cuttlefish might aggressively
  display to a reflection of itself in a mirror.
  The aggressive display of cuttlefish consists of
  a vivid zebra stripped pattern, bulging eyes, and
  often lining up parallel to its reflection.
• Since sexing techniques are far from reliable,
  the best way to get mated cuttlefish is to raise
  a group together in a large aquarium. They can
  tell each others sex by sight and will mate
  readily when they are old enough to do so.

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Pictures