squid/cuttlefish

[kenneth 0]

went to southport just before sunset on monday night, stayed down there for a bit, too windy and rainy so decided to give it the flick, on the way home thought bugger it, go to the jetty for a quick go at some squid, much to my delight, whilst i was questioning my sanity with the gusting winds and sideways rain and being the only person left on the jetty, i hooked a rather large what i thought was a squid, but turned out to be a cuttlefish, i took it home and when cleaning it, i found it to be carrying what i guess were eggs, if i had of known this was the case, i would have released her, just wondering if there is any way to tell this by sight, i know yabbies carry their eggs under their tails, just felt a bit bad is all and would rather leave pregnant sea life where it is, thanks.

[breambo25 1]

Welcome to the site kenneth. I have had the same problem with squid before as well. I don't think there is any way of visibly seeing whether a squid/cuttlefish is pregnant without cutting it up unfortunately. Good to hear you were prepared to do the right thing though.

[withoutchips 0]

Hi Kenneth,It's good to see you were prepared to do the right thing. I'm pretty sure that the eggs are carried internally (some else can correct me if I'm wrong here) so there wouldn't be anyway to tell you if she was carrying. Most likely they were unfertilised, as occyies, squid and cuttle tend to deposit them under ledges and on weed when they are fertilised. I know june, july is the cuttle mating season at whyalla and this is probably true for the rest of the state...so maybe avoid catching them then if you want to leave the egged females alone.

[stev07 0]

Not sure about cuttlefish as never caught one but i seen recently watching Adventure Bound on dvd when he caught a big squid he would hold it up to the sun light and in the middle of the back of the squid ( the lighter part ) if there was a big white area in the middle it usualy ment it was carrying eggs.

[phear 0]

i think u will find all female squid have eggs unless they have just dropped them. the males have like a big chunk of semen in them.

[Hugo Blows 0]

Not sure if there is a way to tell or not. However once the squid or cuttlefish spawn they go off and die so I call it a fair feed regardless of eggs.

[brenton 637]

One interesting thing about squid biology is what looks like eggs is actually small parcels of sperm,Females containing eggs have the long white strips inside.....not too sure whether the cuttlies are the same though. cheers brenton