Friday Cephalopod: Foreplay
Category: Cephalopods • Organisms
Posted on: July 11, 2008 12:07 PM, by PZ Myers
Sepioteuthis sepioidea
Figure from Cephalopods: A World Guide (amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), by Mark Norman.
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Sepioteuthis sepioidea
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Comments
PZ is posting porn on his UM linked blog! Someone alert the Catholics!
Posted by: Josh West | July 11, 2008 12:29 PM
Damn! The confessionals are gonna get busy this Sunday.
Hawt! No, I do not have a cot/caught merger.
Posted by: Sili | July 11, 2008 12:31 PM
Indeed, Rule #34 cannot be broken.
Posted by: Sam B | July 11, 2008 12:33 PM
Thanks PZ, the colors on these creatures continues to amaze and delight me.
Since you were capable of posting this morning I'll assume prayers for your comsumtion by fireballs, brimstone & lightening bolts failed once again. *grin*
Posted by: Patricia | July 11, 2008 12:33 PM
<grumbles> bloody strike-outPosted by: Sili | July 11, 2008 12:33 PM
PZ, i just went to the Discovery Bay exhibit last week at the zoo in Apple Valley. They had a couple cuttlefish in an aquarium. I had never seen a cephalpod in real life before. Not many lakes in Minnesota carry them...
I swear that they were studying *me* as I was studying them. As I leaned closer, waves of brown coursed over their bodies. I didn't realize they could change color so fast. amazing chromatophores!
my wife commented that they looked like little cthulhus.
now that I think about it, their gaze *was* a little maelevolent.
Posted by: rob | July 11, 2008 1:03 PM
rob:
Soon you too will join us in our worship of them.
Posted by: llewelly | July 11, 2008 1:22 PM
Eight arms. With suckers. That's hot.
Posted by: Sloan | July 11, 2008 1:43 PM
"I swear that they were studying *me* as I was studying them."
Indeed, I have heard they are inquisitive, intelligent creatures.
Posted by: Matt7895 | July 11, 2008 1:44 PM
A glance can be deceiving. My tour of the Cephalopod Center down in Galveston convinced me they're only in it for the food, like the rest of us.
Posted by: itwasntme | July 11, 2008 1:59 PM
So how do they taste rolled in cracker crumbs and fried?
Posted by: Hypatia | July 11, 2008 2:18 PM
Why do the cracker posts have orders of magnitude more comments than the squid posts? Something is wrong here!
Posted by: Go Amie | July 11, 2008 3:52 PM
Hypatia #11,
They were asking the same about you. :-)
Posted by: Steve in MI | July 11, 2008 5:30 PM
I think were going to need a 2257 link here
Posted by: kubenzi | July 11, 2008 7:53 PM
Thank God! Not a cracker in sight. Sometimes a wafer is only a wafer....
Lovely colours!
Posted by: Monado | July 11, 2008 8:47 PM
Aaaaahhhhh... nice and quiet in here.
Love the colors on this week's cephalocritters.
PZ, have you ever tried your hand at keeping a cephalopod? I've heard that there's a few cuttles that an experienced aquarist can manage without too many problems.
Posted by: Ragutis | July 12, 2008 3:12 AM
How long will it be before someone accuses PZ of posting tentacle sex fetish material on his blog? ;)
cool picture. Do the different colors have any meaning for the lovely couple?
Posted by: Vidar | July 12, 2008 8:11 AM
Ragutis: I've been to several lectures by Dr Steve O'Shea about the care and feeding of giant squid, which he's been working on for years, working up from more common species. Even the material the aquarium is made out of can poison them. Not really something for anyone who isn't already a dedicated aquarist.
Posted by: wazza | July 12, 2008 8:20 AM
Not really something for anyone who isn't already a dedicated aquarist.
it really does depend on the cephalopod in question.
some, like giant squid, are mesopelagic, and most certainly not used to having any walls to deal with; I've noticed similar problems (physically) with many pelagic critters, from jellyfish to tunas. Moreover, IIRC, O'shea is trying to raise them from larvae - very, very, difficult for just about any species, let alone one we know so little about.
that said, many of the octopuses can thrive in captivity, some squid seem to do OK, and many reef-dwelling cuttlefish do fine and dandy.
I used to keep octopuses in captivity on a regular basis, and we used to keep large numbers of squid (L. opalescens) alive for long periods at the Monterey Bay aquarium, and the Steinhart aquarium (in San Fran).
I would recommend trying local species, if you can catch them, and have the right kind of aquarium (refrigerated for temperate, heated for tropical). The main key seems to be clean water. They really don't seem to do well without either continuous clean water being pumped in, or regular water replacements.
You'll be tempted to overfeed them, but don't. they are very messy eaters, and can quickly make a mess of things in your tank.
for an average size squid/octopus (say around 10-12 inches), something on the order of about half an anchovy once a day is good. They really love crustaceans (even squid). they will also try their hand at eating all of your other denizens in the tank, so be aware of that. If well fed, this should not be too much of a problem, but if keeping octopus, crustaceans would be a bad choice for a tank mate. Make sure you have a tight lid on the tank for octopus, as they often will attempt to escape, thinking there might be another "tidepool" nearby.
all that said, most species will only live a year or so in captivity (they don't live but 1-3 years in the wild, for the most part).
they are indeed very interesting aquarium pets, and while I haven't tried training squid, octopus are actually trainable to a decent extent, and I've heard cuttlefish are too.
Posted by: Ichthyic | July 12, 2008 8:40 AM
Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Reef_Squid has some interesting information about the reproduction of this week's Friday Cephalopod.
"Like other cephalopods, the Caribbean Reef Squid, is semelparous, dying after reproducing. Females lay their eggs then die immediately after. The males, however, can fertilize many females in a short period of time before they die. Females lay the eggs in well-protected areas scattered around the reefs. After competing with 2-5 other males, the largest male approaches the female and gently strokes her with his tentacles. At first she may indicate her alarm by flashing a distinct pattern, but the male soon calms her by blowing water at her and jetting gently away. He returns repeatedly until the female accepts him, however the pair may continue this dance or courting for up to an hour. The male then attaches a sticky packet of sperm to the female's body. As he reaches out with the sperm packet, he displays a pulsating pattern. The female places the packet in her seminal receptacle, finds appropriate places to lay her eggs in small clusters, and then dies."
Posted by: Paguoroidea | July 12, 2008 12:37 PM
I thought you might enjoy this combination of cephalopod art and religion:
http://www.virtueonline.org/images/marine_theology.jpg
The source of the squid cartoon is a right-wing conservative blog site (Virtue Online).
It's a visual attack on the liberal Christian Katharine Jefferts Schori (she is head of the Episcopal Church and she has a PhD in oceanography).
Posted by: Steve Caldwell | July 16, 2008 6:42 AM