Cast your mind back to last fall, when we were touting the happy arrival of a clutch of flamboyant cuttlefish eggs. The small, clear orbs were taken behind the scenes and carefully aerated and doted over by our aquarists. Weeks later, one of the eggs hatched. And now...

We're thrilled to introduce you to our very first home-grown flamboyant cuttlefish!

Flamboyant cuttlefish, all grown up and on exhibit in the Living Coral exhibit

This solo cuttlefish was the only one to survive to maturity — no small feat since the Aquarium is only one of a handful of aquariums across the country to successfully rear this species. It is on display in the vibrant Living Corals exhibit. Look for it crawling along the bottom by the euphyllia (hammerhead coral) or resting mid water on the rock work. Yup, this little guy gets around!

Living coral exhibit: Look for the little cuttlefish along the bottom, at the waterline, or anywhere in between!

Like all cuttlefish, it can change color in the blink of an eye from drab browns to vibrant purples and yellows. When it is hunting, it'll shoot out a pair of clear, retractable tentacles to grab its prey. The menu includes tiny live mysid shrimp and juvenile grass shrimp.

Subdued colors

As soon as a fish comes along, "Watch out, I'm poisonous!"

Full size flamboyant cuttle fish grow up to three inches long, this little cuttlefish is barely an inch long. But last fall it was barely the size of your pinky nail!

Here's the cuttlefish as a wee hatchling, barely the size of your pinky nail!

The New England Aquarium is one of very few places that exhibit this species in a living reef habitat. These animals are so exquisite, they're usually on display all by themselves. So it's exciting to see them in a vibrant reef habitat. Come see one of our tiniest tentacled residents as Tentacles take hold at the Aquarium this summer!

We just added 16 common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) to the cuttlefish exhibit. Yes, 16!

Common cuttlefish

But sometimes you might have to exercise your powers of observation to see these little guys. The juveniles often settle into different nooks and burrowed into the sand throughout the exhibit. We've pointed out just a few of them in this handy GIFs.


These little guys have had quite the journey, starting their life at the Ripley's Aquarium in Tennessee (Fun fact: this species has black eggs. When the females lay the eggs, she places a small amount of ink into each egg!) and coming to us via Monterey Bay Aquarium. When they arrived back in January, they were just 2 cm long. They've grown to be 4 – 5 cm long!
While they love to hide out, even timid juvenile common cuttlefish have to eat. They are fed a mixture of krill and small pieces of shrimp, and each one is slowly getting used to eating from a stick. Check out this short video to watch one of the wee cuttlefish creep past a hiding cuttlefish and grabbing a shrimp snack from the gravely bottom of the exhibit.



We slowed down a portion of the video so you could get a better view of those tentacles. If you want a real treat, check out this super-slow motion video of a cuttlefish grabbing a meal.

More amazing cuttlefish facts are on the blogs. Dive on in, the information is fascinating! Click on a link below for more pictures and video to learn more.

• VIDEO: A Crab for the Broadclub Cuttlefish
• Amazing Cuttlefish
• Meet Pharaoh and Dwarf Cuttlefish
• Pharaoh Cuttlefish Lay Eggs
• VIDEO: Flamboyant Cuttlefish Being Fabulous