Octopuses are much more sophisticated than we thought. Although they are generally solitary creatures, octopuses sometimes team up with fish to find their prey. This collaboration, however, sometimes doesn’t go according to plan and the result is that the fishes take a beating from the otherwise very cute octopuses.

In particular, a new research was led to the above conclusion after studying some hunting packs consisting of an octopus and various types of fish.

How does the partnership work?

The fish detect potential prey and then call the octopus to pry it out of the crevices they can’t reach.

Additionally, the octopus will chase away fish that are just hanging around the school hoping to catch something, rather than actively helping to find prey. “They have understood that these fish are exploiting them,” says Eduardo Sampaio at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany.

Day octopuses (Octopus cyanea) are common in the Indo-Pacific, found everywhere from the Red Sea to Hawaii. They hunt by wrapping themselves around objects such as stones, forming something like a bag with the membrane between their tentacles that traps small animals, a technique called web-over.

Fish and octopus form a powerful action team

Hunting parties consisting of an octopus Octopus cyanea and some fish, usually a mix of different species, were first described in the 1990s, says Sampaio, but it is assumed that the fish simply follow the octopus to try to grab any prey that escapes. his fingernails.

During 120 hours of diving in the Red Sea, Sampaio recorded 13 of these group hunts with a dual camera setup. His team then manually recorded the 3D movements of the team members in the recordings so they could be analyzed statistically.

“Not only do the fish follow the octopus around, but the octopus definitely follows the fish,” says Sampaio. “If a fish is moving straight and fast toward a location, that’s a strong signal to everyone in the group that there’s something interesting there.”