Reef Squid

On a bareboat trip to the Virgin Islands I was photographing a pair of cuttlefish, which I now believe to be Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea?) on a night dive.

After a few minutes of us getting used to each other one of the critters did something that I thought was really fascinating.

I had my Subal with it's double 8" arms folded and tucked in tightly. As I brought the camera to my eye the critter contracted its tentacles and posed in one spot. After taking a few shots I went to extend the strobe arms out to the sides to get a different lighting effect. The critter went back to it's normal look with tentacles extended straight in front if it as I messed with the camera to extend the arms. Well, this time, with the critter waiting patiently in front of me, when I brought the camera to my eye the critter took on a totally different shape with it's tentacles. It spread them out and posed again. At the time I thought it was interesting but I woke up in the middle of the night with goose bumps and a revelation.

Is it possible that it was mimicking the strobe arms? (Please go easy on the critique of the shots as they are un-retouched. I just got back on Saturday)

For some reason I can't seem to post attachments so here is the link to my flickr page with those critters.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abbpics/sets/72157600203595528

Andy Bryant

Seattle, WA

I do not know anything about squid behavior but I can help with the pictures showing up in the thread.

To get pictures to show up, wrap the url in img tags.

[img=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1294/842214028_723a54f2df.jpg]

[img=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1140/842214020_1e204847dc.jpg]

By the way, very nice pictures.

Very cool! Is that a little shrimp at the 11 oclock position of the 2nd picture?

I would say that you are seeing normal defensive behaviour from the squid and it is more than likely coincidental that it appeared to be mimicking the housing and strobe arms. It is also possible that the extended arms on your rig presented a larger aggressor and so it tried to make itself look larger.

Cephalopods are very cool creatures, and probably my favourite marine organisms.

Thanks. That makes sense. It's just that it's behavior seemed more curious than defensive since it swam around with me for 10 minutes, but maybe that was because our lights drew in a lot of sushi for them. Guess I'll have to go back and find him!

It may have also been a defensive reaction to its reflection in your dome. I've had squid and cuttlefish act very differently to my dome port than my flat port.