How to find amazing marine life Ep 6 - the Cuttlefish challenge

This is a 10 level marine life finding challenge. Perfect training for divers, dive guides and underwater image makers, be it photography or videography, the first step is finding the critter. The more cryptic they are the better you need to be. Take on the challenge of finding these masters of camouflage - the commensal critters.
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G’day folks and welcome to episode 6 of the find the critter series where today, we do battle with the most mesmerising of marine critters, the cuttlefish.
These are advanced molluscs closely related to squid and octopus. The most significant difference being their internal shell, the cuttlebone, which they use to control their buoyancy. They mostly get around by undulating the fin that wraps around their body, which allows them to move in all directions.
As usual there is a black sheep that does things a bit different and in this group, it is the flamboyant cuttlefish.
Smaller than most, they walk along the bottom rather than swimming or hovering just above it. All cuttlefish have venom which most species use to kill their prey, the flamboyant cuttlefish though also has poison in it’s skin which makes it poisonous as well as venomous.
All species, have 8 arms and two extra long tentacles tipped with tiny teeth-like suckers which they can shoot out to catch prey.
With big eyes and distinctive W-shaped pupils, cuttlefish have good vision. Their incredible ability to almost instantly change the colour and texture of their skin allows them disappear by matching the background as well as to visually communicate with each other, threaten predators, or mesmerise prey.
Most species only live for a year or two and they fall apart quickly after mating. The battle to win mates is great to watch. The combination of advertising to females and aggression toward other males, the colour change repertoire is on full show.
The successful male deposits packets of sperm inside the female’s body cavity, and after fertilisation, the female carefully deposits the eggs in a safe place, often fire coral as in this case. The parents will protect the eggs but parental care ends when the eggs hatch as tiny versions of the adult.
When we are filming cuttlefish, it is helpful to read their body language so we know where our limits are in terms of how close we can get. Follow shots are great, because we get a POV of looking over the shoulder of a critter on the hunt. This is a sign of a comfortable critter.
When they feel threatened by a diver with a camera, they generally like to face the danger head on. They show threatening displays however they can - usually raising a few tentacles, often flashing threatening colours. They face the camera because their fastest escape is using their jet propulsion to shoot backwards. And like their cousins the squid and octopus, cuttlefish can squirt ink to confuse predators in the most stressful escapes. There is nothing more stressful than being eaten by a potato cod so this is a time to use all the ink available. You should be more careful than I was while filming critters at night where large predators are watching.
And now you know what you’re looking for, we’ll get into the challenge, the easiest of the series so far. Each level will begin with 10 seconds to spot them as you might come across them on a dive, followed by closer and more obvious shots.
So good luck with the challenge and happy critter spotting!
If you enjoyed or learned from this video, please like, share and subscribe and tell me in the comments what marine critters you’d like help to find. I’m Josh from Undersea Productions, Thanks for watching.