The construction of their body shows that cephalopods are molluscs. They have no trace of a skeleton, neither internal nor external. The rest of the cephalopods have an inner shell. That of the cuttlefish for instance is called cuttlebone, though it is neither bone nor skeleton, but a shell rest.

molluscs

Animal

Like several other ocean animals that mistakenly have ‘fish’ in their name (jellyfish, starfish, etc.), cuttlefish are not in fact fish, but rather invertebrates. Like all invertebrates, cuttlefish have no backbone.

In general, Cuttlefish is a lot like squid in the way you cook and eat it. Cuttlefish is a common ingredient in Mediterranean and Asian dishes where its mild flavor and meaty texture work best in quickly-cooked stir-fries or slow, moist braises. Nearly all of the Cuttlefish is edible except for the beak.

Can you eat cuttlefish raw? It is usually cut for use in nigiri type sushi but it can also be eaten as sashimi. While it is best to eat it as sushi (nigiri way), there are other ways that the Japanese consume cuttlefish such as having it grilled, raw (sashimi), sautéed, or simmered with vinegar.

Cuttlefish are used by humans as food, as a source of ink, and for the cuttlebone, a dietary supplement providing calcium for cage birds.

It is estimated that reproductive females make up only 25 per cent of the spawning aggregation. Once the female lays her eggs, she never attends to the eggs again and keeps mating until she has exhausted her supplies of eggs and will head away from the aggregation and soon die.

Female octopuses die around the time their eggs hatch. She will survive for a time after her eggs hatch but will soon die in any case and she has fewer progeny than she could have had. An octopus which produces too many eggs will die before her eggs hatch or will not have the strength to care for them effectively.