The Cuttlefish Mystery

the cuttlefish mystery the cuttlefish are a group of cephalopods related to the squid the octopus and the Nautilus they are mollusks with an inner shell which supports their body there are several hundreds of types of cuttlefish with the wide variety of colors and sizes they can be found in almost all oceans of the world except at the coasts of the American continent and in the polar regions in this film we will take you on a journey around the world and will show some of these extraordinary animals and a peculiar way of life and mating behavior we begin our journey in the Netherlands in the Delta of the river scaled a shallow coastal water shed each spring from early May to June hundreds or perhaps thousands of the common cuttlefish appear here they have spent the winter in the deeper parts of the Atlantic Ocean and moved to the Delta when the water has reached the temperature of 13 degrees Celsius almost immediately upon their arrival the mating season starts the animals are then very tame the male's exhibit a striking black and white striped dorsal pattern and watch over the females when they drop off their eggs also females often show the striped pattern on their body during this season that provides a notable spectacle very appreciated by divers filmmakers and photographers the scientific name of the common cuttlefish is sepia officinalis the sepia uses its ink to color its eggs to black the eggs are fastened to all kinds of sticks and other protrusion objects this is the only place in the world where cuttlefish attached our eggs to hard object placed by men the only other sepia that makes its eggs black is the sepia vermiculite or patchwork cuttlefish only found of the coast of South Africa we move southwards to the shallow bays on the coast of french brittany during the months of May and June three species of cuttlefish come here to reproduce in addition to the common cuttlefish we find here also the pink cuttlefish or sepia or big jnana these two species are indistinguishable in external appearance the only visible difference is that the eggs of the pink cuttlefish are colored white in Brittany the eggs are usually deposited within beds of seagrass the third kind is the small and shy elegant cuttlefish or sopia elegans this is no longer than nine centimeters it's mainly active at night and is therefore rarely seen by divers still further south we arrived in Spain on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea here - during springtime there are plenty of mating activities in the shallow bays the common cuttlefish is here - the most numerous species present during mating the male preps the head of the female with its tentacles so that the two animals are face-to-face this position that can be maintained for more than 10 minutes is very similar for all kind of cuttlefish the male then uses a specialized tentacle to insert sperm sex into an opening near the females mouth moments later the female lays her eggs and overhanging rocks or between the seagrass all the time the male guards the female to prevent that other males can approach and possibly fertilizer we leave the European coasts and travel to the subtropical waters along the coast of Oman here we find the Faro cuttlefish a rather large cuttlefish that occurs in large numbers on the reefs near the west coast of the Indian Ocean the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf when two animals meet they will try to impress each other with strikingly graceful movements of their tentacles making them appear larger than they are here - cuttlefish mating occurs mainly during the month of May and June this is remarkable as the water temperature here is about 30 degrees and at its warmest while at the European coast the water temperature is still increasing during the spring the eggs are deposited in small cavities of the coral reef and are colored white but further south these roots we arrive in the tropical seas around the equator many types of cuttlefish live here on the beautiful coral reefs the broad Club cuttlefish is possibly the most abundant species they are large animals that are up to 50 centimeters long and weigh up to 10 kilos they are usually light - yellow brown is darks or light spots but like all cuttlefish they can quickly change colors depending on the state of mind or to camouflage themselves the closely related middle cuttlefish is also often seen on the shallow reefs although the water temperature is between 27 and 30 degrees Celsius almost year-round here too most meetings occurred in May and June the pygmy cuttlefish is the smallest among the cuttlefish this animal is no bigger than a thumbnail and thereby quite tricky to find it often highs between feather stars sponges or hydrates the most curious and remarkable species is undoubtedly the flamboyant cuttlefish this small species is a poor swimmer that seems to crawl on the button undisturbed animals have a brownish color that matches perfectly with the substrate but when disturbed they suddenly change colors and display a changing pattern of dark bands against a white background yellow skin flaps and red and yellow spots on the mouths tentacles these are clear warning signs to predators because the flesh of this cuttlefish contains a very toxic substance the flamboyant cuttlefish deposits his eggs under coconut halves or other hollow objects that rest on the sandy soils the eggs are stuck to the underside of the coconut shell where they remain protected until the young emerge in one go we moved to Australia the largest island in the world we ignore the well-known Great Barrier Reef and rush to South Australia to the shores of the Indian Ocean here we find Mediterranean climate it is home to the largest species on earth the giant cuttlefish the impressive males can be up to a meter long just like in the Eastern scaled hundreds or even thousands of these animals move to a shallow coastal strip of about ten kilometers long to reproduce also here the animals may cure in the month of May and June that's surprising because then it's autumn in the southern hemisphere and the water temperature is dropping it's only when the water temperature has decreased to 17 degrees Celsius that the animals appear in the shallow coastal strip the eggs are hidden one by one deep beneath overhanging rocks where they are very hard to find and well protected from the many predators a prominent feature of the cuttlefish is that the different species anywhere in the world exhibit very similar behavior especially the mating behavior is very stereotyped irrespective of the species cuttlefish exhibit a characteristic zebra-striped calm pattern on their body during the mating season during the mating season the male guards the female to ensure that his genes are passed on to the next generation hence frequent conflicts occur between two or more males as large numbers of animals together in a small area there are always hijackers on the coast and the encounters can be quite violent another curious facts is that the development of the eggs is about four to six weeks regardless of the water temperature and the location on earth sometimes the egg membrane is transparent allowing to observe the developing embryos often it's also possible to see the yolk sac the embryos only food source once fully developed the baby cuttlefish break backwards through the egg membrane that doesn't always go very smoothly the babies usually stay close to the substrate where they are hard to see both for their prey and for the predators even though cuttlefish are very cute and cuddly they are voracious predators they catch their prey by stretching out with lightning speed too long feeding tentacles cuttlefish hun during the day and night and are real gluttons that do not hesitate to attack and eat pretty big fish or traps the young animals usually are perfect copies of their parents an exception to us are the giant cuttlefish in Australia the juvenile giant cuttlefish have a white fluorescent band around their body sometimes they even exhibit mimicry like this individual whose color pattern mimics a toxic box fish to deter attackers cuttlefish can change colors quickly and are able to camouflage themselves particularly well hence they are sometimes called the chameleons of the sea nevertheless they often buried themselves beneath the sand to rest motionless and to appear invisible to any enemies such as octopuses big fish sharks seals and dolphins the Easton Scout is the only place where cuttlefish mainly use artificial objects for the deposition of ex divers plays upright sticks on the shallow bottom to complement the natural places of egg deposition like sea grass or grass horses and tubular bones these sticks are an alternative to funnel traps and lobster cages that cuttlefish used to drop off their eggs not infrequently the adult animals got stuck in this gear and retrieving and moving it was often fatal for the fragile eggs after laying of the eggs the females are completely exhausted and they die quickly what remains are the inner shells the observant hiker can find large numbers of them on the beach because each species of cuttlefish has a characteristic shell form you may even find out what species occur in the area next year the new generation cuttlefish will exactly do what their parents and the ancestors did from the depth of the oceans they will return to the spawning grounds where they were born during the months of May and June they will mate and threaten and fight his opponents again and again new eggs are deposited and young cuttlefish are born generation after generation anywhere in the world only divers can enjoy this particular spectacle

Channel: Paul Engels

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Id: utOcOfxbA5Q

Length: 20min 30sec (1230 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 28 2016