Eggs are tended, cleaned and aerated by females until they hatch. Incubation takes 150 days to seven or more months, depending on the temperature. Females do not feed while tending eggs and die when the eggs hatch or shortly thereafter. Many of the eggs will die if not tended by the female until hatching. The young then settle to the bottom, although not much is known about this settlement phase.
Dens are an important resource to octopus during all benthic life stages.
Dens are used both as brooding chambers and as refuges from predators, including other octopuses, various fishes, and many marine mammals. Most dens of juvenile E. dofleini are naturally occurring spaces under rocks or in crevices or are an excavated cavity in sand or gravel under a boulder. Octopuses consume mostly crustaceans and mollusks, most often small crabs and scallops. Other bivalves, snails, fish and other octopus are also eaten. Through this hole, the octopus secretes a toxin that paralyzes the prey and begins to dissolve the connective tissue.