The Vampire Squid From Hell, what a name isn't it. This name actually gives you a bad feeling about this harmless little squid. The Vampire Squid lives on great depths where there isn't any light. Maybe that's why they called it the Vampire Squid From Hell.

The Vampire Squid from hell, also called "Vampyroteuthis infernalis" what literally means "Vampire squid from hell" like I named it before. Is a Cephalopod that lives in a oxygen minimum layer. It belongs to the order of the Vampyromorphida and it's the only member, who isn't fossilized. We probably could ask our self if this is a squid or an octopus, but luckily some scientist came to the decision that the vampire squid isn't a squid nor octopus. That's why they made a special order for him, named Vampyromorphid. The first person (German teuthologist Carl Chun) who discovered this amazing creature thought that vampire squid was a member of the octopus order in 1903.

A lot of pictures that you find on the net are zoomed in, the vampire squid is a little creature and it can only reach a length of 30 cm. It has a terrifying name, but no terrifying weapons. The vampire squid changes of color depending on the environment and light. The most common colors of the vampire squid are red-gray-blue or something in that nature. It has eight arms with spines and suckers on the tips of his arms. Look at the pictures and you'll see that it has 2 fins on his head that helps him get forward. They also have white jaws with a big force on it and did you know that the vampire squid gives light in the dark deep sea. The body of the vampire squid is completely covered with photophores that produce light (watch the video below). It's a useful thing to distract any possible predator and luring its pray. The best of all is that it has its photophores completely under control. A big difference with the normal octopus is that it can't change the color of his skin because of the poor developed chromatophores . This isn't a big deal in the great dark depths, but it's a big difference between the octopus.

It lives on depths of 600 to 900 meters. The vampire squid is a very unique creature that can survive in the oxygen minimum zone and it's one of the few that can spend its entire life on such great depths. To live on these depths you need great adaptations and the vampire squid has these. It has blue blood that transports oxygen faster, it has a slower metabolic and it has weak muscles. There are other adaptions, like very sensitive eyes to spot his prays in the dark, but if he goes to shallow waters and looks above his head, then he can't see anything because of the light. Therefore it has a special solution, it generates its own bluish light to see the silhouette of the moving object above him, if there is one. Now take a look at the picture and you'll see that the vampire squid has enormous eyes compared to his body. These eyes are very complex and can see almost everything in the dark, even a little flash from a far distance. Another great difference between the octopus an the squid is that the vampire squid hasn't any inc sack. Instead he uses his arm tips to eject a kind of blue sticky cloud that can glow for about 10min. This can save his life, but it needs a lot of energy to produce it.

The life of a vampire squid is very complex and it happens in stages. A young squid has 1 pair of fins to use, but a middle age has 2 pair of fins that he can use. When the squid gets older he only has 1 pair left. The extra pair of fins is located at the head of the vampire squid and the older the squid is, the more efficiently their fins become. They actually become smaller in size and change direction to become more efficient and save energy.

The reproduction of a vampire squid: Finding food on such great depths is hard and encountering a mating partner is very difficult, because of the great area they live in. The numbers of vampire squids is unknown, but it surely isn't a very big population, because it's difficult to encounter someone of the other sex. Once the male delivers its package to the female, the female can choose when she's wants to use the package to fertilize her eggs. After this step the female vampire squid will need to take care of the eggs for 400 days before they hatch. In this period the female vampire squid doesn't eat and dies shortly after the eggs  hatch. The little vampire squids are 8 mm long and they look like their parents only a lot smaller.

Observing vampire squids is a difficult task, because all the information that you've read above comes from encounters with ROV's. Keeping these squids in special aquariums doesn't help and it keeps them alive for only 2 months. Another problem is that observing these creatures in an artificial area isn't objective.

To avoid any predators the vampire squid can't afford to lose a lot of energy, therefore the vampire squid has found some very unique solutions, his firework glow that we've explained above, the pineapple move, when threaten it inverts its arms over its body just like a shield. If he uses the pineapple move he lures the predator away from its critical parts by glowing his arm tips. The arm tips can regenerate once they are cut of and aren't lifethreatening .

Scientific Name:Vampyroteuthis infernalis
Comments: Photographed in plankton kreisel aboard the R/V NEW HORIZON. Captured at 700 m depth.
Size: 25 cm total length
Copyright: © 1999 Brad Seibel

The vampire squid hasn't a lot of enemies, but some sea animals like whaled or sea lions could easily kill and eat the vampire squid, if they go to shallow depths. The vampire squid itself feeds on little shrimps and jellyfishes.