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What symbiotic relationships does the Common Octopus or the Octopus Vulgaris have?
Question Date: 2018-10-16
Answer 1:

This is a tough question, because there is so much about marine life that we still don’t know. Scientists recently discovered a new relationship between Octopus vulgaris and Heteromysis octopodis, a type of shrimp. Scientists Charles Griffiths and Karl Wittman recently filmed the shrimp living in the den of an octopus off the coast of South Africa and published their results in ZooKeys.

However, not all symbiotic relationships are happy, like the octopus letting the shrimp live in her den. The protozoan Aggregata octopiana is a type of parasite which can infect the digestive system of the Octopus vulgaris and cause it various health problems. Another example of a parasite which infects the Octopus vulgaris is a dicyemid mesozoan which is a type of worm that lives in the nephrid tracts of its hosts.


Answer 2:

I am not aware of any, and did not find any on a quick lookup. Octopus in general are pretty solitary animals.



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