youngliterati asked: Well apparently your ask box ate my question, so I hope you don't mind if I ask again ^^'. I run Tentacritters, you know, the blog that posted the cute li'l yellow dwarf cuttle, and I was just wondering where you learned to identify them. It's a useful skill to have...I feel silly labelling most of my cuttle pics as "cuttefish". Also I do wonder what species that is that you keep posting from off the coast of Japan, they seem really cool! Thanks for making this blog, cuttles are my faves!

Hello! I apologise for my ask box, by the way, it keeps telling me I have this one message in it but then there’s nothing there! Super annoying.

I love your blog! Tentacled creatures are awesome.

Re: identifying - it’s difficult, but it is very rewarding, as I think it’s taught me much more about cuttlefish and the different species that exist. So here’s what I do - note that I taught myself, so I’m probably not correct all of the time! Hence why I’ll say “species unknown” if I’m not sure, or if I’m tossing up between two, I’ll list them both.

Firstly, some of them are really obvious (Bobtail squids, Flamboyant cuttlefish, etc.). For the others, just try to recognise obvious characteristics of that species. It’s difficult, because cuttlefish are so adept at changing colour, but you can often narrow it down. It gets easier because it seems there are some cuttlefish species which are more prevalent than others, and so most photos will be of them - Giant cuttlefish, Common cuttlefish, Pharaoh cuttlefish, Reaper cuttlefish and Broadclub cuttlefish. You won’t have to worry about identifying, say, a Starry cuttlefish or a Kisslip cuttlefish as there don’t appear to be any photos of them on the Internet at all - trust me, I’ve looked!

For the above species, there are certain small features which you can use to identify them. Giant cuttlefish are obviously large (compare them to the background in the photos); and I find they’re often have a distinctive purple-grey-red tinge to them. Reaper cuttlefish are nearly always shades of red or pink. Pharaoh cuttlefish often have those distinctive stripes, and they look thinner and more elongated than other species. Broadclubs are another big species, they look much more stubby and heavy-set. They’re often mottled brown as well, or they can be entirely brown. Common cuttlefish are often striped like Pharaoh cuttlefish, but they look a bit shorter and their tentacles aren’t normally as extended.

Basically, as I collected images for this blog, I started to notice various features that some species had that I could use to tell them apart. As I mentioned, there are still times when I’m not sure, but normally I’m tossing up between one or two.

There was a really good technical guide which I posted a link to a while back, if I can find it again I’ll post it again - it pretty much listed every species of cuttlefish currently known, with identifying features such as mantle size, tentacle configuration, etc, which is probably a bit too extreme, but interesting all the same.

I’m afraid I don’t honestly know which species those Japanese cuttlefish are, they’re all from a series off flickr by the same photographer, and the lighting in the photo makes it difficult to tell what colour they actually are. I’ve been meaning to ask the photographer if he/she might have any idea, though, so if I do that I’ll post here!