Octopuses only mate once during their short 18-month life. The male octopus attracts a female by displaying a new colour and lifting up his arms to reveal the large suckers underneath. He uses a spoon-like cavity on the tip of his third arm, to transfer sperm to the female's mantle cavity.
A few weeks after mating, the male deteriorates and dies. The female lays clusters of grape-like eggs, attaching them to the walls of a crevice on the seabed. She remains with her eggs until they hatch, not eating all this time, and dies just when the eggs are hatched in a few weeks.
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