When Titan met Socratette

Blind dates are always uncomfortable, so it's nice when you can smell and taste someone before you actually have to meet.

Such was the case with Socratette and Titan, two single octopuses who met romantically (Barry White music and red roses included) at the Seattle Aquarium this Valentine's Day, after a couple of weeks of exchanging water (and thus scents) between their tanks.

The annual event had its first success — in a throwback to the 1970s, these swingers are expected to get jiggy on their first meeting — last year. This year, the public witnessed more 16-armed wrestling, which the aquarium hopes will result in up to 70,000 octo-babies.

"There is no safe sex for octopuses," says Seattle Aquarium biologist Dr. Roland Anderson. After males reproduce they soon die. Females lay eggs the size of rice grains in sticky strands, and protect them for months until they hatch, at which point the mothers also succumb in the watery deep.

— Maria Dolan