Squiddies

These Bigfin Reef Squid (I think) (Sepioteuthis lessoniana) provided a lot of entertainment for me on a week of night dives in Egypt. The first night I came across a group of 4 which I believe were 2 pairs mating. They were showing these flashing irridescent patterns. I believe I distracted this chap - (s)he started displaying to me! The stripes you can see were scrolling up his/her body to create a rippling effect which was quite fantastic to see.Later, on another dive, I came across a more unusual behaviour. One squid appeared to be attacking another and looked to be biting the other . The "weaker" looking specimen turned a very queasy looking colour. This appeared quite different from the mating behaviour we saw earlier although I don't know enough about squid to know what they were doing so it may have been another aspect of mating behaviour (though i would guess not). The "aggressor" departed suddenly and left this little fellow l0oking quite miserable and a little battered and bedraggled sat on the bottom. Cephalopods sometimes seem as interested in divers as we are in them. Perhaps he associated our lights with safety I don't know but it followed us for the rest of the dive (25 minutes). If we stopped finning it'd move in closer otherwise it would remain just behind us throughout.