Flamboyant cuttlefish

Photo: Kimberly Tripp Randal · CC BY-NC

The flamboyant cuttlefish is the only known toxic cuttlefish species: its muscles contain a compound as potent as blue-ringed octopus venom, and its pulsing red, white, yellow, and black skin warns predators accordingly. It walks across the sand on modified arms rather than swimming, a behaviour unique among cephalopods. At TK they hunt small fish and shrimp in the open during daylight hours, making them one of the easiest of Lembeh's iconic species to photograph in natural behaviour.