OBERHAUSEN, Germany — Paul, the German octopus who found fame during this year’s soccer World Cup by predicting eight correct successive match winners, has died, his spokesman at the Sea Life Oberhausen visitor attraction in Germany said yesterday.

Spain, in particular, hailed Paul as a national treasure after the mollusk twice picked the Spaniards as winners, first against Germany then over the Dutch in the final.

The octopus died in his pool in the night between Monday and Tuesday. The aquarium said there are no suspicious circumstances concerning the death — although no one was expecting it.

“”We all grew very fond of him and we will grievously miss him,”” said Sea Life chief executive Stefan Porwoll.

Paul, nearly 3 years old at the time of his death, was actually born in Britain — although this was of no help to the hapless English side during the soccer tournament. Scotland and Wales did not even qualify.

Aquarium staff employed Paul as an oracle by giving him a choice of two plastic buckets, each marked with a national flag, and seeing which one he reached into first for his favorite food, shellfish.

Some of the losing nations at the soccer fest in South Africa blamed Paul for their defeat and wanted to turn him into calamari rings. Others offered high sums to buy the aquarium star, but the Sea Life chain said he was too old to go.

Meanwhile, in such esteem was Paul held in World-Cup winning Spain, a town wants to preserve Paul’s body in a yet-to-be-built aquarium and octopus museum.

The northwestern town of Carballiño adopted Paul as its honorary citizen in July, a measure which helped to nearly double the number of visitors to its annual octopus festival to about 100,000.

Mayor Carlos Montes said he had now contacted the German aquarium again in an attempt to acquire Paul’s remains.

However, Paul is to be cremated, and the urn containing his ashes will form the center of a shrine surrounded by film clips of his tentacles successfully predicting match results by pointing to the flag of the winning country.

The Sea Life aquarium is already raising a “”Paul II””, in time to predict the 2012 European Football Championship.