Marine Life / Cephalopods

Broadclub cuttlefish

Sepia latimanus

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Mollusca

Class

Cephalopoda

Order

Sepiida

Family

Sepiidae

Genus

Sepia

Species

Sepia latimanus

The broadclub cuttlefish (Sepia latimanus) is the big reef cuttlefish of the Indo-Pacific, a master of camouflage that can ripple waves of colour across its body to mesmerise prey. It can also mimic the look of coral or rock almost perfectly.

Growing to about 50 cm in mantle length and up to around 10 kg, it is one of the largest cuttlefish in the world. It hunts fish and crustaceans on coral reefs, approaching slowly before firing out its tentacles. During breeding, males guard females and the pair lay large eggs deep inside branching corals.

Broadclub cuttlefish occur from the Andaman Sea to northern Australia and the western Pacific, including the Philippines. Divers on Philippine coral reefs can sometimes watch them hovering, hunting or laying eggs among the corals.