Here’s some friendly advice from the animal kingdom: long bouts of mating could put your life at risk.

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According to a new study in Biology Letters, post-sex squid are prevented from foraging for food, avoiding predators or mating again. But don’t feel too bad for the little critters — their sex sessions can last up to three hours. So they’ve made their, uh, ocean-bed.

So how does mating actually work?

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“During these trysts, the male clings to the female, grasping her and blowing water into her mantle, the bulbous part of her body behind the head.”

Researchers, curious how tiring squid sex actually is, gave the squid an endurance test by blasting them with water, observing whether they would swim against the current or be forced to the back of the tank. (No word on PETA protests yet).

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After half the squid were put in pairs for mating and the other half used as a no-sex control group, they found the mating squid could swim for only half as long postcoital. It took a half hour to get back their endurance for both males and females. That sounds familiar…

[Live Science]

Biology just got a whole lot more interesting for Yelena Shuster.

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