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I've seen schools of reef squid at night and your description confused me. The Aliivibrio fischeri, according to the Wikipedia article, are only found in Hawaii

I've seen schools of reef squid at night and your description confused me. The Aliivibrio fischeri, according to the Wikipedia article, are only found in Hawaiian Bobtail Squid which I've never encountered before. I've seen other types of Bobtail Squid, which were all tiny, solitary, and found on the sea floor. It sounds like the bioluminescence is just enough to overcome the moonlight shadow as they hover above the bottom. Very cool, thanks for the link.

vikramkr 6y ago
They're not just found in that one squid, that squid just happens to be the model organism labs study. They symbiose with many other organisms as well
- sradman 6y ago
  Sure enough, it is too late to edit my comment but the Wikipedia page says: > A. fischeri have been most studied as symbionts of marine animals, including squids in the genus Euprymna and Sepiola, where A. fischeri can be found in the squids' light organs. Clicking through the genus Euprymna and Sepiola links, it looks like these are all Bobtail-Squid-like. I shouldn't have used the word "only" but that wasn't the source of my confusion. My issue was the word-picture of a school of reef squid, found in the upper water column, using bioluminescence to overcome moonlight shadows. It didn't make sense. Bobtail Squid, on the other hand, are tiny bottom feeding animals. They are not what I think of when you say "squid" without qualification. However, the images of Bobtail Squid on Wikipedia do not make their half-your-thumb size obvious and the silhouette image [1] makes it look like an upper water column phenomena. When I first realized we were talking about Bobtail Squid, I thought of the blue lights some people put under their cars. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobtail_squid#/media/File:Bobtail_squid_light_organ_silhouette.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobtail_squid#/media/File:Bobt...

vikramkr 6y ago

They're not just found in that one squid, that squid just happens to be the model organism labs study. They symbiose with many other organisms as well

sradman 6y ago
Sure enough, it is too late to edit my comment but the Wikipedia page says: > A. fischeri have been most studied as symbionts of marine animals, including squids in the genus Euprymna and Sepiola, where A. fischeri can be found in the squids' light organs. Clicking through the genus Euprymna and Sepiola links, it looks like these are all Bobtail-Squid-like. I shouldn't have used the word "only" but that wasn't the source of my confusion. My issue was the word-picture of a school of reef squid, found in the upper water column, using bioluminescence to overcome moonlight shadows. It didn't make sense. Bobtail Squid, on the other hand, are tiny bottom feeding animals. They are not what I think of when you say "squid" without qualification. However, the images of Bobtail Squid on Wikipedia do not make their half-your-thumb size obvious and the silhouette image [1] makes it look like an upper water column phenomena. When I first realized we were talking about Bobtail Squid, I thought of the blue lights some people put under their cars. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobtail_squid#/media/File:Bobtail_squid_light_organ_silhouette.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobtail_squid#/media/File:Bobt...