Common octopus
Octopus is considered one of the most intelligent animals that we can encounter in our Mediterranean Sea. As you can see, it is a champion of camouflage, cunning and escape strategies. However, it also has its problems and if once camouflaged it is practically impossible to see even to the most expert eyes, a spoilsport fish like the Serranus scriba (Painted comber) almost always reveals its presence on the seabed, making even the best possible camouflage useless.
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.
Common octopus (Octopus vulgaris Cuvier, 1797) is a cephalopod mollusc of the Octopodidae family.
Distribution and habitat
It is a cephalopod mollusc very common in shallow waters, no deeper than 200 m. It prefers rough and rocky substrates, because they are full of hiding places, cracks and small caves in which to hide: the absence of an endo- and exoskeleton allows it to move easily, to take any shape and to pass through very narrow tunnels. Present in all seas and oceans, it is also very common in the Mediterranean Sea.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_vulgaris
Painted comber (Serranus scriba Linnaeus, 1758), also known as, boccaccia and buddace, is a marine bony fish belonging to the Serranidae family.
Distribution and habitat
It populates the Mediterranean Sea, where it is very common, and the Black Sea as well as the eastern part of the Atlantic Ocean, from the Bay of Biscay to Mauritania. It prefers rocky seabeds and Posidonia oceanica meadows. It is an almost exclusively coastal fish and, although captures at 200 meters of depth are known, it is normally rare to encounter it below 30.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serranus_scriba
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