Description

I’m told by people that when Cuttlefish go bright white like this guy it is because they are scared. So I must admit taking photos of them when they are ghost white is somewhat of a “do I, don’t I”, moment. Now the thing is, I actually don’t know if this is true or not, that they only go white when frightened, it could actually be a sort of threat display, hey look at me, nothing else is this white, I’m poisonous, don’t eat me!

So if you have spent time photographing Cuttlefish you will know they don’t always stick around, in fact maybe only 1 in 5 will stay close for nice photos, while the rest will swim off to get away from you, which makes me think that actually, that’s how they deal with being afraid of something, more so than going ghost white. It has been my experience that the when they turn this color they actually stay very very still and relatively non-agitated.

So it is hard to say whether or not this behavior is a sure sign of a frightened Cephalopod, but it does make for some interesting photo opportunities. I tried to make the background of this one black, to really bring out his colors, but sadly couldn’t quite get it 100% in the photo’s I took, he liked his little rock to the bottom left, plus it was bright daylight, so that did not help.

Enjoy :)