Two-stepping flamboyant cuttlefish wants a closer look at you. 👀
While beautiful, this coloration from a flamboyant cuttlefish indicates that it is stressed – dark black and yellow patterning indicates a defensive response. Flamboyant cuttlefish normally display colors in this beautiful range:
These gorgeous cuttlefish are actually unable to swim for long periods, due to the small size of their cuttlebone (cuttlefish use the gas chamber within the structure for buoyancy control) and instead “walk” along the bottom of the ocean, with the bright red structures on their arms extended upwards to warn off predators. One of just three cephalopods known to be poisonous, the toxin contained in a flamboyant cuttlefish’s tissue is as lethal of that of the more well-known blue-ringed octopus.
Plume de Lynx 