The beginning of your video does a great job showing the true color of the corals as well.

Mimicry in all cephs is an assumption that has taken hold in the psyche of the media. It may be that even the big player, the mimic, octopus isn’t mimicking anything (a lot of other octos do very similar displays). Its a lot like the idea of intelligence in cephs – they seem to have it, but do they really…hard to tell.

That said, it does look like groups of juvenile Sepioteuthis go into a defensive coloration that looks like a mass of floating macro algae.

As for the idea of cuttles mimicking other animals, I haven’t seen much evidence of it. Mostly it appears to be simple (ha!) camouflage, blending into algae, wood, rocks or other background/substrate. Metasepia and pajama squid (Sepioloidea lineolata) are the two frontrunners in actual toxicity and they don’t appear to look like anything but themselves.

That was rambly!

That site has gotten to the point where a few people dominate every thread, and the few people who dare challenge them or highlight alternatives(i.e. CHEAPER NON SPONSORED Ways) typically get booted off for some reason.

Would be awesome if someone did a rundown of “this was a fad, here’s what was good about it, here’s what was bad”.

I’m pretty sure if I drop it down it’d roll like a log. I’ll call it a ‘Bark Acro’.

I remember Rich bursting my bubble (and Michelle’s) when we learned that the “school” of “cuttlefsh we saw while diving off Ft. Lauderdale was really a squid that mimics the cuttles, so it begs the question as to wether or not the opposite is true. I was also curious if the any of the color cues that cuttles use mimic toxic animals?

Awesome piece…looking forward to part 2!!

Scott F.