After courtship, the couple face each other and remain united for several minutes, “cuddling” each other with their tentacles. The male then impregnates the female by inserting his copulating tentacle, releasing the contents of his seminal capsule. The female lays about 500 eggs in clusters and from these, young cuttlefish of just a few centimeters in size are hatched.
L’Aquàrium de Barcelona
We happened to be visiting the Barcelona Aquarium during the time that the cuttlefish were in their courtship and mating cycle. For the cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) this ends badly as they die from exhaustion.