Flamboyant Cuttlefish are one of the most wonderful creatures we get in Lembeh. They are small (of course) but have the ability to flash bright colours when excited.
They are also amazing to watch feed, as they crawl around, searching for small prey. When you watch them it looks like they extend a tube which they fire at their prey and then suck it into their mouths. Anyway, that’s what it looks like…..
However what is really happening is that they have two adapted feeding arms. They put these two arms together then slowly extend them. When they are near their prey they make a lighting fast strike, grab the bit of poor unsuspecting food and gobble it up.
I was extremely lucky to get a couple of bits of action. This clip starts off with a normal speed strike. After that I managed to get in front of a Flamboyant and film the two feeding arms coming together and stretching out. The next sequence is of the strike in slow motion. When slowed down you can actually see that the ‘tube’ is made of two arms that grab the small scorpionfish and drag it into it’s mouth. Enjoy!!
