The majority of people are familiar with octopuses. Few, however, are familiar with the stone-fish. This species of fish has the sort of face that only a mother could love. Having evolved to literally look like a piece of stone or coral, that sort of camouflage has served it well to hide from predators and to catch unsuspecting prey. You figure that having such an effective characteristic at its disposal that the stone-fish would not need anything else. Incredibly, the stone-fish not only looks ugly and is able to camouflage itself, but it is also highly poisonous. In the waters where it lurks, it is the most poisonous fish in the area. A sting from this creature can be deadly to a human being — not to mention to its fellow sea creatures.
In this video you see a stone-fish swimming along the ocean bottom. Immediately behind it you see an octopus approaching. The octopus is taking a no holds-barred approach. You see it suddenly speed up to catch the stone-fish and in a matter of seconds envelope it in its arms.
You might be asking yourself, what about the stone-fish’s poison? Well, our friend the octopus does not enter this sort of battle unarmed. The octopus is not the type of creature that brings a knife to a gun fight. In this case, the octopus matches the stone-fish poison for poison.
What happened the moment that the octopus was able to wrap itself around the stone-fish was that the suckers of the octopus, as well as the area of its mouth opening equipped with a beak, began to release its own toxin into the stone-fish. This toxin paralyzed the stone-fish quickly.
This explains the near total lack of a struggle. Once the octopus had enveloped the stone-fish it immediately swam towards some nearby rocks. It found itself a quiet little nook and it waited for the toxin to finish off the stone-fish. Once that was done, the octopus could start to eat its dinner.
