Cuttle Fish during our Dive trip

 

 

Dive Trip with Melissa

Moray eel

Alex & the Cuttle fish.

Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda, which also includes squid, octopi and nautiluses. ‘Cuttle’ is a reference to their unique internal shell, the cuttlebone. Despite their name, cuttlefish are not fish but mollusks.

Alex Melissa & cuttle fish

 

 

Cuttlefish eat small mollusks, crabs, shrimp, fish, octopuses, worms, and other cuttlefish. Their predators include dolphins, sharks, fish, seals, seabirds, and other cuttlefish. Their life expectancy is about one to two years. Recent studies indicate cuttlefish are among the most intelligent invertebrates.^[2]Cuttlefish also have one of the largest brain-to-body size ratios of all invertebrates.^[2]

The ‘cuttle’ in ‘cuttlefish’ comes from the Old English word cudele, meaning ‘cuttlefish’, which may be cognate with the Old Norse koddi (‘cushion’) and the Middle Low German küdel (‘pouch’).^{[citation needed]} The Greco-Roman world valued the cephalopod as a source of the unique brown pigment the creature releases from its siphon when it is alarmed. The word for it in both Greek and Latin, sepia, is now used to refer to a brown pigment in English.

 

 

 

 

 

Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfish, are a family of mostly marine fish that includes many of the world’s most venomous species. As the name suggests, scorpionfish have a type of “sting” in the form of sharp spines coated with venomous mucus. The family is a large one, with hundreds of members.^[2]They are widespread in tropical and temperate seas, but mostly found in the Indo-Pacific.

Most species are bottom-dwellers that feed on crustaceans and smaller fish. Many inhabit shallow waters, but a few live as deep as 2,200 m (7,200 ft).^[2] Most scorpionfish, such as the stonefish, wait in disguise for prey to pass them by before swallowing, while lionfish often ambush their prey.

 

Gorgonacea is an order of sessile colonial cnidarian found throughout the oceans of the world, especially in the tropics and subtropics. Gorgonians are also known as sea whips or sea fans and are similar to the sea pen, a soft coral. Gorgonians are closely related to, but technically not coral, themselves. Individual tiny polyps form colonies that are normally erect, flattened, branching, and reminiscent of a fan. Others may be whiplike, bushy, or even encrusting.A colony can be several feet high and across but only a few inches thick. They may be brightly coloured, often purple, red, or yellow. Photosynthetic gorgonians can be successfully kept in captive reef aquariums. The name “Gorgonacea” is no longer considered valid and Alcyonacea is now the accepted name for the order.