418 Dive Log Australasia JUNE 2026.pdf

Capturing natural behaviour of a Flambuoyant Cuttle is always appealing

Like all molluscs, the fish is shredded using the flesh-rasping tooth known as the radula before swallowing digestible pieces of fish. Cardinal fish hatching eggs. The next dive, I noticed a group of six Cardinal fish. A single male, with the enlarged jaws, had eggs in its mouth. As I tried to get some photographs, I quickly realized that the other five were females. Only the male has the enlarged

First of all, they poke out their long feeding tentacles toward the prey. They seem to be taking aim as well as judging the distance of the strike. Next, the hectocotylus is fully retracted. Then, they strike with full speed. The prey fish is grasped in a split second and delivered into the beak of the cuttlefish. Cuttlefish usually use the beak to cut fish just behind the head to sever their spinal cord in a single bite and in an instant.

Look carefully at this male Cardinal fish. It was being protected, surrounded and shielded from my camera by five females

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Dive Log Australasia #418 June ’26

www.divelog.net.au