These mating amphipods can be seen swimming together in rockpools. The sperm are transferred from the male to the female genital duct. The female releases the eggs into a ventral brood chamber where they are incubated during development. Unlike crabs and shrimps amphipods are not released as zoea that develop into adults after stages of metamorphosis. Instead when released they look very much like their parents.
Some species show parental care of their young after they leave the brood chamber.
Lifestyle Amphipods live in all sorts of habitats. Species living on seaweeds may be herbivores, those in mud and sand feed on bacteria on the surface of particles, others are scavengers on dead animals or plants. One group of families lives in tubes spun from silk glands in their legs. Sometimes forming colonies, these amphipods when alarmed can completely conceal themselves inside the tubes that may be 2-3 times their body length. The only part of the body that protudes from the tubes is the antennae that have long hairs which are thought to capture food particles.