Transparency helps protect phyllosomes and the puerulus from predators. During the three to four week interval of the puerulus stage, the animal does not feed. The puerulus swims directionally until it reaches suitable nearshore habitat where it settles to the bottom, molts and continues its development as a juvenile spiny lobster. Juvenile pigmentation serves to camouflage small lobsters in the algae where they live. The body form resembles that of adults.
Juveniles live on the sea floor among rocks, algae and seagrass beds in shallow waters.
With increasing size, they move to deeper waters and as they mature they migrate to seaward reefs. To grow, spiny lobsters must shed their hard outer skeleton by molting, just as other crustaceans do. The soft animal quickly absorbs water, expands and the largernew carapace hardens. Young lobsters molt often, older ones less frequently, perhaps only once a year. When lobsters mate, principally from March through July, the male deposits a sperm mass, called a spermatophore, or tarspot, on the female.