Australian Giant Cuttlefish
Ascarosepion apama
Cuttlefish
cuttlefish
About
Cuttlefish are soft-bodied hunters famous for changing colour and pattern in a flash. In this app the group includes the broadclub cuttlefish, the common cuttlefish, and the pharaoh cuttlefish.
How to tell it apart
Cuttlefish are often mistaken for squid. The mark that settles it is the eye: a cuttlefish pupil curves into a smooth W-shape, while squid have a round pupil. Members are mostly told apart by skin pattern and size, or by the shape of the cuttlebone if one is found washed up on the beach.
Appearance
Cuttlefish have a broad, rounded body with a fin running around its edge, and eight arms plus two longer tentacles around the mouth. Inside the body is a unique internal shell called the cuttlebone, which helps the animal control its buoyancy. Each species has its own cuttlebone shape and pattern.
Habitat
Cuttlefish live in tropical and temperate seas, mostly in shallow water, though some can be found as deep as 600 metres. They are found off the coasts of Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia, but are completely absent from the Americas.
Behaviour
Cuttlefish can change the colour, pattern, and texture of their skin almost instantly, using it to hide from predators, ambush prey, and signal to other cuttlefish. They have excellent eyesight, with a pupil shaped like a smooth W and no blind spot.
Diet
Cuttlefish mainly eat crabs and fish, though newly hatched young start out feeding on small shrimp.
Did you know?
A cuttlefish's colour-changing skin is powered by thousands of tiny muscle-controlled sacs called chromatophores, some of which can expand to five times their resting size in an instant.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
