The multiple-armed aquatic animal octopus was believed to have social life, but around 15 years back it was considered that it lives solitary. Now again that old belief is in vogue. Recently a diver, Matthew Lawrence, in Jervis Bay noticed unusual social behavior of octopuses, which were seen changing body color and shape while in company of their mates in a group and even were seen throwing debris on each other. This all signaled that they were trying to resolve the fights. Lawrence mentioned his observation on a website, which soon caught attention of international octopus researchers.

The team of researchers comprised Professor Peter Godfrey-Smith from the University of Sydney and City University of New York and Professor David Scheel from Alaska Pacific University. They made an underwater video of 52 hours that showed 186 octopus interactions.

Their study was published in Current Biology, which mentions a rare example of octopuses living in a group. They found that octopus not only use its color changing capabilities to prevent predators but also to avoid conflicts with others and that some octopuses do live in a group.

The reason that up to a dozen of octopuses were found living together could be the availability of sufficient scallops for the octopuses to consume and that area is somewhat in the middle of the bay, less approached by predators. The interaction recorded involves octopuses tuning their color dark, standing tall and looming threateningly over other of their kind, throwing debris at or poking each other and spreading their webs, this all signify their aggression.

"The dark color and some of the behaviors that go with it are associated with aggression, or at least approach, the paler colors signify that the octopus is not going to stand its ground — that it's going to retreat or withdraw”, said Scheel.