Description: A small to medium-sized cephalopod. Robust mantle, slightly flattened dorsoventrally. Mouth surrounded by 10 appendages (8 arms and 2 tentacles). Tentacles end in clubs with 5-6 suckers in transverse rows, and are retractile into pockets on the ventrolateral sides of the head. Internal oblong calcareous cuttlebone located dorsally in the mantle underneath the skin. Light brown; dorsal mantle with transverse zebra stripe pattern during the breeding season. Head with scattered white spots and dark pigment around eyes.
Global Distribution: Eastern North and Central Atlantic and the Mediterranean. View Map
BIOLOGICAL FEATURES
Size: Maximum size 490 mm mantle length, weight up to 4 kg in temperate waters; 300 mm mantle length and 2 kg weight in subtropical waters.
Age: Life span 1 to 2 years.
Weight length rel.:
Growth type:
von Bertallanfy growth parameters:
Reproduction: Elaborate courtship ritual involving stereotyped visual display and mate guarding. Spawning occurs in shallow water; peaking at water temperatures of 13ºC - 15ºC. Males carry up to 1400 spermatophores and females between 150 - 4000 eggs, depending on their size. Eggs are attached in clusters to seeweed, shells, and other substrates. Post-spawning mortality in females is high. Young cuttlefish hatch after 30 to 90 days depending on temperature, at 7 - 8 mm.
Maturity:
Behavioural ecology: Slow swimmers, able to achieve neutral buoyancy by regulating the amount of gas and fluid in the chambers of the cuttlebone. They are able to hover in midwater, using the fins as stabilizers.
Population structure & migrations: Undertakes seasonal migrations between inshore waters during spring and summer and medium shelf grounds during autumn and winter.
ECOLOGICAL FEATURES
Depth range: SeaLifeBase: 0 - 200 m, usually 0 - 50 m.
Habitat: Neritic, demersal species, found on the continental and insular shelves, from subtidal waters to depths of 200 m; most abundant in the upper 100 m.
Feeding habits: Feeds on small molluscs, crabs, shrimps, polychaetes, other cuttlefishes, and juvenile demersal fishes.
Trophic level:
FISHERIES
Commercial interest: Commercial species. Less common in Madeira than in continental waters.
Conservation status: Least concern.
Nutritional information & food safety:
Proximate composition per 100 g:
energy value 90.8 kcal (4.5% DRV)
protein 15.8 g (31.6% DRV)
fat 1.2 g (1.7% DRV)
REFERENCES
Direcção Regional de Pescas, Madeira.
IUCN (2014). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. www.iucnredlist.org
Reid, A., Jereb, P. & Roper, C.F.E. 2005. Family Sepiidae. In P. Jereb & C.F.E. Roper, eds. Cephalopods of the world. An annotated and illustrated catalogue of species known to date. Volume 1. Chambered nautiluses and sepioids (Nautilidae, Sepiidae, Sepiolidae, Sepiadariidae, Idiosepiidae and Spirulidae). FAO Species Catalogue for Fishery Purposes No. 4, Vol. 1. Rome, FAO. pp. 57–152.
Spitz J., Mourocq E. Schoen V., Ridoux V. (2010). Proximate composition and energy content of forage species from the Bay of Biscay: high- or low-quality food? ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67(5): 909-915.
