Impersonator Who Imitated

Indonesian seas re-contribute new knowledge to the world of science. From the waters of Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi, researchers discovered the existence of the fish that mimic octopus mimetic way.

The jawfish (red arrow) mimics an octopus that mimics fish. (Picture from: http://www.livescience.com/)

The fish was discovered by Godehard Kopp of the University of Gottingen, Germany, when diving in waters off Sulawesi in the middle of last year. During the dive, he observed a pair of diving with underwater creatures. Both aquatic animals that are mimetic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus) and black-marble jawfish (Stalix cf. Histrio).

Mimetic octopus who imitated the fish can mimic other 15 species of marine animals, ranging from sea snakes, sea anemones, mussels, giant crabs, until the stingrays and jellyfish for camouflage. Despite all the octopus can change color and texture to resemble the bottom of the sea, this mimetic octopus is the first known species of octopus can mimic another animal to fool predators.

For 15 minutes, the camera could not be separated from Kopp's strange behavior jawfish. These animals continue to follow wherever mimetic octopus moves. That interest is, the tiny fish change body color to conform with the body color of mimetic octopus. As a result, the octopus is usually deceive prey or his enemy by disguising himself now even fooled by the disguise jawfish.

Video recordings Kopp then sent to Rich Ross and Luiz Rocha of the California Academy of Sciences in the United States who study fish jawfish Institution considers the behavior of disguise was never encountered before. It aims to undercover jawfish get protection from the octopus while wandering in search of food. Researchers also reported these findings to the scientific journal Coral Reefs and called jawfish behavior as "opportunistic imitation."

"Incognito is very unique because of the new first observed," said Rocha as assistant curator of fish science from the California Academy of Sciences.

The joy of exciting new discoveries about the behavior of marine animals Indonesia was overshadowed by the anxiety that soon overflowed after the study. Therefore, the Coral Triangle region of Southeast Asia are the habitat of these animals has suffered damage due to human activities. As a result, many of the unique behavior of the animals from this area who would perish before they could be studied by humans. *** [CALACADEMY | ANTON WILLIAM | KORAN TEMPO 37590]