Some report that young female shrimp carrying their first clutch of eggs tend to drop some or all of the eggs, possibly due to inexperience or small size.[6] If a berried shrimp is stressed by predators or poor water conditions she may also abandon the eggs.[7]
They have 20–30 eggs, which take 2–3 weeks to hatch. The eggs are green or yellow, depending on the colour of the saddle. They turn darker and darker until the young shrimp hatch after about three weeks. As the eggs near the end stages of growth, tiny dark eye spots of the developing shrimplets within can be observed. When the young hatch, they are tiny (~1 mm) copies of the adults. They have no planktonic larval stage. They spend their first few days of life hiding among plants or stones, where they are almost invisible, nibbling on the biofilm on the plants. They then emerge and graze on algae on tank surfaces and ornaments.
Female shrimp, under ideal conditions, can breed again within a few days of hatching the previous clutch.