Essay On Cuttlefish

You might think cuttlefish are cuddly, but actually they are not cuddly at all. Cuttlefish, also called the sea chameleons are intelligent invertebrates that live in seas and oceans. Like their cousins, the octopuses and the squids, they are a mollusk. They make up the group cephalopods which means ‘head foot’ because they all have tentacles attached to their heads. Cuttlefish have large brains to remember things, tentacles for catching prey, arms for holding food. Despite the eyes they are color blind but they still work as well as our own. Cuttlefish are skillful color changers. A cuttlefish can change colors using special cells under its skin that contain colored chemicals called pigments. From birth cuttlefish can display at least thirteen types of body
patterns. Changing color helps a cuttlefish to show its mood, hide from predators such as sharks, and confuse its pray.
When in danger just like the octopuses and squid, a cuttlefish shoots out dark ink to distract the predators. Cuttlefish ink was once used by artists and writers for ink. A cuttlefish’s short broad body has an internal shell called a cuttlebone. You might think the cuttlefish has a backbone but actually it doesn’t. The cuttlebone is filled with air so that the cuttlefish can float. You can often find cuttlefish bones washed up at the beach or at a pet store for a source of calcium for cadged birds. A cuttlefish has around twenty thousand pigment cells per square centimeter of skin, which is one hundred and thirty three thousand pigments per square inch. Cuttlefish are able to catch fairly large pray such as fish, crustaceans like crabs, shrimp, and prawns which are a marine animal that resembles a large shrimp. The largest species of cuttlefish in the world is the Australian cuttlefish which can grow more than three feet and weigh over twenty pounds. The smallest is the Spirula spirula which rarely grow forty-five millimeters in size. Cuttlefish have short life cycles and rapid growth patterns. Most cuttlefish are expected to have a two year life span and a female will die
shortly after laying eggs. Cuttlefish can change textures and shapes for example if there is coral around and a crab crawling close by, it will automatically change to the color or shape of the coral. Cuttlefish have bluish green blood, and as the protein henocyanin contains copper instead of iron and they have three hearts! Two of the hearts is for jet propulsion and the third is for pumping blood through the body. The scientific name for cuttlefish is Sepiida and they are a carnivore. There are about one hundred and twenty species of cuttlefish. Without the omnivores, carnivores, and herbivores we would have an unbalanced planet but with them we have a balanced earth.