Life cycle
| |
 |
|
| |
Figure 15: The life cycle of the Eastern King prawn (Recovered from The Department of Industry and Investment NSW 2010)
|
|
The Eastern king prawns life cycle is similar to that of most penause prawns. It has an oceanic and an esturine stage (as seen above). Adults shed eggs offshore onto the benthos. eggs than hatch and the first free swimming larval stage emerges (naupilus)(Montgomery 2010). This naupilus then grows/ moults and eventually becomes a protozea it then goes through a number of protozea stages before becoming a mysis (Montgomery 2010; Vance & Pendrey 2008) . This mysis similarly, goes through several stages to become a predominantly bottom dwelling post larval prawn, which then becomes a juvenile prawn(Montgomery 2010). Through this journey these prawn stages are part of the zooplankton. Once at the juvanile stage they feed and grow and eventually become adult prawns and migrate back out into the oceans to reproduce. |