The amazing octopi, crafty cuttlefish and shimmering squid.
The cephalopod group include the many octopi species as well as cuttlefish and squid.
Cephalopods
Cephalopods are on the same evolutionary line as snails (Gatropoda). They are felt to have the intelligence of a cat. Watching them at Kungkungan this is not difficult to believe !
There are many different cephalopods found in Kungkungan Bay. The rarer sightings include the wunderpus and the mimic octopus, the blue ringed and 2 ringed octopus.
The wunderpus has the habit of pouncing on its prey, usually a small crab, with it's arms spread wide, covering it in a webbed membrane which stretches between the arms.
The marginated octopus has a glowing blue frill to his tentacles and is shown in the left hand margin.
The mimic octopus, another long armed octopus, has a shifting shape which mimics other sea creatures as it swims.
The coconut octopus will collect as many shells as it can carry to act as doors to its home. Home may be a bottle or can or a burrow in the sand. Above left the octopus is snuggled inside a bottle.
The blue ringed octopus advertises his venom with pulsating blue rings. The lesser known 2 ringed octopus, or poison ocelot octopus, is sitting on a yellow sponge above center. It is also a small octopus with blue rings but only 2 rings, one on each side of the body.
The cuttlefish are aggressive hunters who drift quietly and then snatch photographic subjects from in front of the lens. This happens especially at night as they use the spot light from your torch to identify an easy meal.
The rarest squid we found is this tiny Hannon pygmy squid, less than 1 cm long, and pictured in the top right hand photo. This species was only described years after we took this shot.
Octopi
This is the Indonesian long armed octopus.
The long arms octopi are sandy and blend in well with the environment. They live in burrows in the sand. They disappear into impossibly small holes. The head is disproportionately small for the tentacles, hence the term "long armed". 2 other long armed species are specialities of the Sulawesi area. The mimic octopus and the aptly named wunderpus, because he is actually wonderful!.
The Wunderpus
Note the webbing between his legs
In this photo the wunderpus has retracted the webbing in preparation to disappear into an impossibly small hole in the sand.
The Mimic octopus.
The mimic octopus is said to be able to mimic multiple fish and animals by the way he lays his tentacles on the sand, for camouflage and maybe for hunting. I have to say that I could not see much validity in these claims. You had to look at him with a squint and one eye closed to even imagine it, but it's a good story!
This coconut octopus collects shells from which he will construct a home, or use the shells as a door to a can or bottle or burrow. In the first picture he is collecting shells. Then he saw us and tried to defend his shells by tucking them into his arms, and lastly he peeks out from his new shell home. They are so greedy for the shells they try and pick up far too many to carry and drop and scatter them as they desperately try to come back and pick them up again.
These are small octopi and will also often be found inside bottles and cans and coconut shells, hence the name.
The Blue Ringed octopus
The Lembe straits has a rich diversity of octopuses. This is the relatively rare blue ringed octopus made famous in the James Bond movie Octopussy. It is small but deadly and has luminous blue rings on the body which glow when it is excited or angry This octopus had just caught a small crab and was taking it back to its lair, a sponge encrusted bottle. Note how he changes his camouflage as he nears the bottle to mimic the encrusting sponge almost perfectly.
Cuttlefish
Cuttlefish have a a unique internal shell called a cuttlebone which is used for control of buoyancy. It has air and water filled chambers and is functionally similar to a swim bladder in fish. These are the light white shells we pick up on the beach and much beloved by budgies.
The Greeks much prized cuttlefish as the source of a unique brown pigment which is released from the siphon when they are alarmed. They called this sepia which gave its name in English to the red brown colour
They are said to be one of the most intelligent of all invertebrates with the largest brain to body size. Certainly we saw some very sneaky behaviour from cuttlefish while in Kungkungan. Especially at night they would align themselves with our torches and hunt the subjects of our photography, much to everyone's irritation!.
Broadclub Cuttlefish
You can see how well they can camouflage , often lying in the sand or covering themselves in sand. They are all but invisible.
The Flamboyant cuttlefish, metasepia pfefferi,
With its bright colours and textural displays the flamboyant cuttlefish is a firm photographic favourite. It is a small cuttlefish and uses complex and varied camouflage to stalk its prey. It often walks on the sea floor because its cuttlebone is so small it can only float for short periods. Its muscle tissue is highly toxic, as toxic as the blue ringed octopus. Happily that means its not on anyones menu.
Prey is caught by two extendable arms which shoot out rapidly from a pocket at the base of the tentacles to grab the prey, bringing it within reach of the tentacles. It uses its changing colours and patterns to mesmerise the prey, mostly crabs and shrimps.
Squid
Juvenile Squid
Like octopi, squid are mainly soft bodied but they do have a small elongated internal shell called a gladius or pen. They have 8 tentacles and 2 longer arms to catch fish in the open water. Their bodies shine with an almost irridescent glow.
Bobtail Squid
Irridescent in shades of blue and green the tiny bobtail squid is delight to photograph