Life cycle of a prawn

Although freshwater prawns require brackish water in the initial stages, most of their lifecycle is spent in turbid, riverine systems.
Freshwater prawns have a hard outer shell that must be shed regularly in order to grow. This process is called “molting”. Because of these periodic molts, growth occurs in increments, rather than continuously. This results in four distinct phases in the life cycle;
1.Egg
2.Larvae
3.Post-larvae
4.Adult.

Male Prawns
Male prawns are larger than females of the same age. The male has a head (cephalothorax) proportionally larger than the abdomen, which is narrow, and the chelipeds are long, massive and large.

Females Prawns
Females become sexually mature before six months of age. Mating occurs only between hard-shelled males and ripe females that have just completed their pre-mating molt and are soft-shelled. Within a few hours after mating, eggs are laid and transferred to the underside of the tail where they are kept aerated and cleaned. Although first spawns are often not more than 5,000 to 20,000 eggs per female, mature females have been reported to lay between 80,000 to 100,000 eggs during one spawning. The eggs remain attached to the abdomen until they hatch. The bright-yellow to orange color of newly spawned eggs gradually changes to orange, then brown, and finally to grey-black. At 82º F, eggs hatch 20 - 21 days after spawning.