Cuttle Fish

What's a cuttlefish?

Member of the cephalopod family, like the nautilus, octopus and squid.  Has more tentacles than octopus or  squid and it's cuter.  There are some really fascinating videos about cuttlefish on youtube. Has an amazing ability to change color in a flash, which turns out to be via something like electricity and an incredibly complex combination of color changing cells in its skin.

If you only have time for one video and you're not interested in the details about chromataphors and irridifors (I am totally guessing on the spelling), you just want to see the amazing coolness of the color changing cuttlefish then you should probably watch this one:



I suspect that once you watch that one (it's short, too), you'll want to know more about this amazing species and how it does what it does.

I find the explanation of the cellular complexity of their ability to change color here interesting.

This is a longer one, cobbled together from other youtube videos as well as new footage. The script in some cases is lifted verbatim from those of other videos, only read aloud by one of the Asian students who made the video. The 'yummy hunk of protein' tipped me off. It's worth seeing in particular for the discussion of their ability to change shape as well as color, which I didn't find on other videos I watched.

 This one is also intriguing- although billed as showing a cuttlefish make a chess pattern, it doesn't.  Cuttlefish can't do checkerboards, probably because a perfect array of squares doesn't occur in nature., Still, there's some amazing information  about cuttlefish and the mechanism of their color changing abilities.



Nova did an entire special on them just this month: NOVA: Cuttlefish - Kings of Camouflage

Their website has a cool page of information about the critters.  Although they tell you you should try their cool interactive version, it really didn't do anything for me. I prefer the printable page.

About that 'yummy hunks of protein' aspect:

Although I feel kind of bad about it after watching all those videos, dried cuttlefish or Saki Ika, is our first experience with cuttlefish, and it remains a favorite. The last time we were there (which was ages ago), the commisary carried it (grocery store on our local military base for you civvies), although it's
pricey.
 It's sort of like squid jerky I suppose, and very, very tasty.  Smells vile, but tastes good, IMO.  It tastes like nothing else, so I can't describe it for you other than to say there's an element of smoked meat, with that accompanying hint of sweetness, but  otherwise, I can't tell you.  IT certainly tastes *nothing* like chicken.

WE first had it in Japan.  We saw a real, authentic, honest to goodness Pizza Hut in one of the towns on the island of Okinawa, and just had to check it out.  Decor was the same, and for the most part the pizza was the same as Merkan, but they offered cuttlefish and corn as two of the toppings.  For a side dish instead of salad they had a tasty mixture of fried potatoes and bean sprouts.

Corn on pizza didn't do a thing for me, but the cuttlefish added a bit of a zing.