Japanese common squid, Pacific flying squid
The Japanese flying squid, Japanese common squid or Pacific flying squid, scientific name Todarodes pacificus, is a squid of the family Ommastrephidae. This animal lives in the northern Pacific Ocean, in the area surrounding Japan, along the entire coast of China up to Russia, then spreading across the Bering Strait east towards the southern coast of Alaska and Canada. They tend to cluster around the central region of Vietnam.
A planktivore is an aquatic organism that feeds on planktonic food, including zooplankton and phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are usually photosynthet...
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CongregatoryCongregatory animals tend to gather in large numbers in specific areas as breeding colonies, for feeding, or for resting.
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MigratingAnimal migration is the relatively long-distance movement of individual animals, usually on a seasonal basis. It is the most common form of migrati...
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starts withAdult squid have several distinguishing features. The mantle encloses the visceral mass of the squid, and has two fins, which are not the primary method of propulsion. Instead, the squid has a siphon, a muscle which takes in water from one side, and pushes it out the other side: jet propulsion. The squid has eight arms and two tentacles with suction cups along the backs. In between the arms sits the mouth, or beak. Inside the mouth is a tooth-tongue-like appendage called the radula. Squid have ink sacs, which they use as a defense mechanism against possible predators. Squid also have three hearts.
The age of a squid can be determined on the basis of growth rings when additions are appended daily to the statoliths, balance organs in the back of the squid's head. This species of squid can weigh up to 0.5 kg. Mantle length in females can go up to 50 cm; males are smaller.
The Japanese squid can live in water from 5 to 27 °C, and tend to inhabit the upper layers of the ocean. They are short-lived, only surviving about a year. The flying squid live in surface water of 100 m, but can go as deep as 500 m.
Squid are difficult to study individually in the lab, because "the animals appear to become stressed by isolation". However, the planktonic larvae are believed to feed on phytoplankton and zooplankton until they grow large enough to begin feeding on fish. When the squid mature more, they will eat mainly fish and crustaceans, but will also resort to cannibalism, especially when trapped in nets together.
Within this year of life, the squid mature from their larval form, feed and grow, migrate, and at the end of their lives, congregate at the mating grounds, where they reproduce. Three subpopulations have been identified in Japanese waters. "The main group spawns in winter in the East China Sea, the second in autumn, west of Kyushu, and the third, minor group in spring/summer in the Sea of Japan as well as off northeastern Japan."
"Their migration moves north, then south, tending to follow the surface currents. The squid tend to travel in large schools of more or less uniform size that it is often possible to follow the growth of cohorts from recruitment to spawning, although the earliest part of the life history is generally more difficult to study because the larvae are always pelagic and some are rarely caught".
Squid generally only live one year because as soon as they reproduce, they die. Males mature first, and "transfer their spermatophores on the still immature females." Then, on the continuing journey south, the females "mature and spawn 300 to 4,000 small, elliptical or semi-spherical eggs." The squid migrate together, and lay all their eggs in the same area where they were born. The eggs hatch into larvae after only 102–113 hours (somewhere around five days), depending on the water temperature.
Social animals are those animals that interact highly with other animals, usually of their own species (conspecifics), to the point of having a rec...