Good evening everyone, and welcome to tonight's Fish of the Day (until next week) #24 !
Let me introduce you to the Strawberry Squid (Histioteuthis heteropsis), with a size of around 20 cm, these squids can be found in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic Oceans, between depths of 1,000 meters (3,300ft) and the surface, where they come to feed at night alongside their twilight-zone buddies. ?
Bioluminescence is essential for many creatures of the twilight zone, mainly to communicate with one another but at the cost of potentially being spotted by a predator. That cost-benefit is on spectacular display in the strawberry squid, due to their strawberry-colored cells called photophores that dot its skin and provide a distinctive glow. Strawberry squid have the ability to perceive light in both dim and bright surroundings due to their asymmetrical eyes. It’s got this incredible ability to spy on silhouettes against the dimly lit waters from above, with its larger tubular eye. And seek out light from below, which is a sign of bioluminescent animals, using its smaller blue eye. Another fascinating adaptation are their semi-upright posture, which allows strawberry. squid to simultaneously look up, down, and sideways as it jets through the ocean.
And that is it for today's fish! Tomorrow we'll have a look at a user-requested fish, so stay tuned for that! Sources & a few more photos will be included in the thread.