Good morning friends, it 5:00am here and super quiet! I have a very busy day planned ahead IF it doesn’t rain again! I am picking up Stijn at 8:00am and we are both first taking a friend of mine out to the airport to get him a ticket so he can get home to see his family in South America, will tell you this story more next week. After that we are planning on going to Mount Christoffel for the whole day doing photography. It’s something I have always wanted to do but have never taken the time to do it. Stijn will be helping me carry gear all day and help me set up any black-back-drop photos I may be taking so if it happens we may end up having some fun Curacao wildlife/vegetation photos for you next week.

For the past few days a group of four baby Caribbean Reef Squids, Sepioteuthis sepioidea have been living in our little lagoon at the Substation. The biggest one seen here is only about an inch and a half long. They spend their days just hovering in one spot under a big piece of algae encrusted rope that is hanging in the water and close to the surface. So yesterday after the sub dive I ran inside and put together another camera with the good-ol 28-70 lens and took off back to the water. When photographing squids you have to move real slow! In fact, what I do is just park myself about a meter from them and just hover there for 10 minutes before I start taking any pictures, that way they start to get a bit used to you. The basic coloring of a Caribbean reef squid is a mottled medium green to brown on their dorsal (upper) side with lighter coloring on their ventral (under) side for camouflage from predators swimming above or below them. These animals are social creatures often found in small groups that communicate through a variety of complex signals. Both cuttlefish and squid communicate by controlling the pigment in their skin. Messages such as readiness to mate, sexual identification, and alarm are flashed through various colorful spots, blotches, and background color. To signal slight alarm, their brow ridges turn bright gold and their central arms turn white. Their entire body will pale when a squid retreats from a potential predator and in open water when faced with an extremely aggressive predator, reef squid can also hide themselves and confuse predators by ejecting a cloud of black ink. Retreating squid near the protection of the reef will often turn dark brown or reddish in color to match their surroundings.

In addition to their colorful signaling behavior, S. sepioidea display unique behaviors such as pointing their bodies upward or vertically prior to striking a fish or prey, curling upward during territorial disputes and in hostile situations, and pointing head-down when approached by a predator in open water. As you can see here this little guy put his arms out as far as he could to make himself look bigger to try and scare me away, I was laughing underwater at how darn cute he was! Compared to the size of their body, squid’s eyes are strikingly large. They have the largest eye-to-body ratio in the entire animal kingdom.

I better get moving, I will send more baby squids shots this week! Have a wonderful weekend,

Barry

Good morning from Curacao, I have been going thru old squid photos this week and found another for your viewing pleasure. It seems like every time we send out squid or octopus photos we get the most replies from our readers and really they are my hands down favorite creature to see on any given dive. Caribbean Reef Squid are largely piscovorous (means feeds of fish) and wait for their prey to approach them during the day. At night, they are more active hunters. Captured prey are generally a few centimeters long, depending upon the size of the squid. In feeding, fish are transported to the mouth by the arms where they are bitten behind the head and secured until eaten. These arms are lined with sharp hooks, corresponding to adapted sucker-rings. The tip of the arms have a cluster of smoother suckers, while the clubs at the ends of the longer tentacles have both connective tubercles and smooth suckers. The squid will feed on the flesh and internal organs of the fish but discard the head, tail, vertebrate column, and ribs. When out hunting, these squid will employ a number of very clever techniques. Individuals may raise their central upper arms to lure potential curious predators. Another method, presently exclusive to Caribbean Reef Squid, involves hiding their tentacles from the vision of their prey until the time to attack. At this time, tentacles are rapidly extended past the limit of the longest arms. Also, squid can bend their tentacles in a hooking v-pattern to aid in capturing smaller prey. In addition, upon approaching food a squid may twist and spiral its tentacles in hopes of confusing its prey.

During the day, they live in large and organized groups but are never close together and usually equally spaced apart. This species does not cooperatively drive its prey but may compete with one another for food at times. They remain closely bunched and will strike at prey generally one at a time then fall back into line with the group. However, they are known to exhibit cannibalistic activity. When ready to feed, they have been observed anchoring themselves, and remain very still, by the arm tips on the seafloor bottom and wait for the appearance of its prey. The fish captured are primarily sardines, dwarf herring, false prichard, red, and hardhead silversides. Other prey include shrimp, mysids, and mollies. Food selection is of greatest important to the survival of young squid. In isolated studies, newly hatched squid were very selective in choosing prey but flourished upon large amounts of mysid crustaceans. Juveniles and adults also capture small planktonic animals (copepods) and small arthropods, something I have never seen yet as a photographer.

 

Good morning friends, thanks for all the comments from yesterday, it’s nice or should I say; it’s comforting to know that everyone likes sea turtles. Here is a male Caribbean reef squid, Sepioteuthis sepioidea in his “angry colors” that I found a while back at a dive spot called “Tugboat” located at Caracasbaai. This is by far the wildest color pattern on a squid I have ever seen and I think it was due to another male in the area bothering his woman while she was laying eggs under a rock.   The basic coloring of a Caribbean reef squid is a mottled medium green to brown on the dorsal side with lighter coloring on the ventral side for camouflage from predators swimming below. These animals are social creatures often found in small groups that communicate through a variety of complex signals. Both cuttlefish and squid communicate by controlling the pigment in their skin. Messages such as readiness to mate, sexual identification, and alarm are flashed through various colorful spots, blotches, and background color. To signal slight alarm, their brow ridges turn bright gold and the central arms turn white. The entire body will pale if the squid retreats from its potential predator and in open water when faced with an extremely aggressive predator, reef squid will obstruct themselves and confuse the predator by ejecting a cloud of black ink. Retreating squid near the protection of the reef will often turn dark brown or reddish in color to match their surroundings.

In addition to their colorful signaling behavior, reef squid display unique behaviors such as pointing their bodies upward prior to striking a fish or prey, curling upward during territorial disputes and in hostile situations, and pointing head-down when approached by a predator in open water. The main adult squid predators include the Yellowfin grouper as well as other large predatory fishes.

Compared to the overall body, squid’s eyes are strikingly large. The have the largest eye to body ratio in the entire animal kingdom.

Yesterday I started to come down with what ever Aimee and the rest of the aquarium have but thanks to my mom sending cold medicine I have so far kept it away. She sent me this stuff called Zicam and Airborne and is best used at the first signs of sickness but seems to work.

Need to get moving, have a wonderful day, Barry

Good morning from Curacao. Here is a new Caribbean Squid photo I got on my last night dive months ago in Bonaire. Below is a little information from marinebio.org they have a great site and great information and perfect for those of us who don’t have much time in the morning, read on. The Caribbean reef squid is one our favorite Cephalopods. It is often encountered among shallow reefs and is usually unafraid of divers, if not curious about them. The mantles of newly hatched squid are about 8-9 mm in length and the mantles in adult males and females reach 12-20cm in length. Adult reef squid closely resemble their cousins, the cuttlefish, in that their bodies are broad and less streamlined than many other squids. Reef squid can also move using jet propulsion by pressing water from the pallial cavity (in the mantle) through their funnel to move through the water.

The basic coloring of a Caribbean reef squid is a mottled medium green to brown on the dorsal side with lighter coloring on the ventral side for camouflage from predators swimming below. These animals are social creatures often found in small groups that communicate through a variety of complex signals. Both cuttlefish and squid communicate by controlling the pigment in their skin. Messages such as readiness to mate, sexual identification, and alarm are flashed through various colorful spots, blotches, and background color. To signal slight alarm, their brow ridges turn bright gold and the central arms turn white. The entire body will pale if the squid retreats from its potential predator and in open water when faced with an extremely aggressive predator, reef squid will obstruct themselves and confuse the predator by ejecting a cloud of black ink. Retreating squid near the protection of the reef will often turn dark brown or reddish in color to match their surroundings.