Species group · Malacostracans

Prawns

WAnimals has 2 species of prawn, spread across 2 families (Palaemonidae, Penaeidae).

2 species

2 families

77 countries

41 parks

Ranges calculated from the entries that record the figure, not from all 2.

All 2 species of prawns on WAnimals

Each one has its own full entry. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.

Asian Tiger Shrimp

Penaeus monodon

Giant River Prawn

Macrobrachium rosenbergii

1 Not Evaluated1 Least Concern

No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.

Recorded in 77 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:

Its large-scale farming drove the clearance of enormous areas of mangrove in South-East Asia, an environmental impact that has marked the history of aquaculture.
From Asian Tiger Shrimp
It has established itself as an invader in the western Atlantic, from the United States to Brazil, after escapes from farms.
From Asian Tiger Shrimp
A single female can release close to a million eggs in one spawning.
From Asian Tiger Shrimp
The males form three castes of different appearance and behaviour: the dominant blue-clawed males, the orange-clawed males and the small transparent ones, and an individual can change caste over its life.
From Giant River Prawn
Its larvae die in pure fresh water: they need salinity to complete their metamorphosis, something that held back its farming for decades until it was discovered in the 1960s.
From Giant River Prawn
Its males come in three distinct morphotypes that coexist in the same population, and they are not age stages but alternative strategies.
From Giant River Prawn