Diving near Indonesia, Godehard Kopp of the University of Gottingen,
Germany, filmed an unexpected pairing between a mimic octopus and a
black-marble jawfish.
The mimic octopus impersonates toxic flatfish, lionfish, and even sea
snakes by creatively configuring its limbs, adopting characteristic
undulating movements, and displaying bold brown-and-white color
patterns. The disguises enable the octopus to swim in the open with
little fear of predators.
The jawfish, on the other hand, is a small and timid fish. It spends
most of its adult life close to a sand burrow, where it will quickly
retreat upon sighting a predator.
During the diving encounter, the black-marble jawfish was seen
closely following a mimic octopus as it moved across the sandy bottom.
The jawfish had brown-and-white markings similar to the octopus, and was
difficult to spot among the many arms. The octopus, for its part, did
not seem to notice or care.
Kopp sent the video to Rich Ross and Luiz Rocha of the California
Academy of Sciences, who identified the jawfish species. Since this
association had not been recorded before, they published their
observations online last month in the scientific journal Coral Reefs.
The authors surmise that the jawfish hitches a ride with the octopus
for protection, allowing it to venture away from its burrow to look for
food—a case of “opportunistic mimicry.”
“This is a unique case in the reefs not only because the model for
the jawfish is a mimic itself, but also because this is the first case
of a jawfish involved in mimicry,” said Dr. Luiz Rocha, assistant
curator of ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences.
“Unfortunately, reefs in the Coral Triangle area of southeast Asia are
rapidly declining mostly due to harmful human activities, and we may
lose species involved in unique interactions like this even before we
get to know them.”
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