I recently came across a video detailing the strange cooperation between the Day Octopus (Octopus cyanea) and some species of fish. Instantly, I thought of the relationship between the Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris) and the Painted Comber (Serranus scriba). There appears to be some sort of cooperative behavior between the two, though this is a phenomenon mostly known to fishermen. The following photograph is a clip from a video I recorded. Could this behavior be similar to the ones observed of the Day Octopus?
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Indeed. Symbiosis.
https://www.intotheblue.link/en_GB/2024/09/04/common-octopus/
" When we see this fish staring still, completely immobile, at an apparently empty point on the seabed, it means that our friend Octopus is there. This behavior is due to a sort of symbiosis or mutual aid, the Sciarrano manages to feed on some scraps of food left by the octopus, which would benefit from the presence of the sentinel fish to signal the presence of any predators in the area.
This mutual interaction, as can be seen, does not stop even when the octopus is on the run, since the Serranus scriba follows it practically everywhere."
A paper that mentions “the association between O. vulgaris and the diurnal fish Serranus scriba”:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982221017346
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