Cuttlefish Couple (3 of 3)
Broadclub cuttlefish (Sepia latimanus)
Date taken: January 20, 2012 at 7:43am
Dive site: Magic Mountain, South Raja Ampat, Indonesia
In Feb 2017, I posted a CephalopodPerDay and I posted a few broadband cuttlefish pics. So I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to find something new to say. But, alas, more searching and I learned another term and a few cool facts! Cuttlefish are gonochoristic, reproducing through external fertilization (just like octopus). The female will keep the spermatophores (special containers of sperm) and later choose to fertilize her eggs with the sperm of the mate she desires. Not too bad, they can lay their eggs when and how they want! But, unfortunately, and also like octopus, the female dies shortly after laying their eggs.
My iNaturalist observation: 5159441
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5159441
Wikipedia: Sepia_latimanus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepia_latimanus