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Animal profile · Crustaceans · Penaeid prawn
Giant tiger prawn
Penaeus monodon
The giant tiger prawn is a large tropical shrimp with dark stripes across its body. Young stages use estuaries and mangroves before adults move offshore.
Not a fish · an aquatic neighborWater
Saltwater + Brackish
Mangroves, lagoons, estuaries, and offshore muddy or sandy bottoms.
Temperature
Range not established
The reviewed sources provide culture optima rather than a dependable complete wild range, so both values are null.
Size
Up to about 34 cm (13 in) body length
About the length of a dinner plate
Lifespan
Best-supported wild lifespan is not established.
Life expectancy varies with place, conditions, and what scientists have been able to observe.
01 · Signature adaptation
What does it do?
It is strongly nocturnal and spends daylight hours partly buried. It molts regularly, becoming soft and vulnerable until the new shell hardens.
02 · Home coordinates
Where does it live?
Coasts from East Africa across southern Asia and Southeast Asia to northern Australia and the western Pacific.
Regions: Indo-West Pacific · East Africa to Australia
03 · The menu
What does it eat?
Larvae feed on plankton; benthic juveniles and adults hunt, scavenge, and consume detritus.
Omnivore and predator: mollusks, polychaete worms, small crustaceans, detritus, diatoms.
04 · Remember this
Two wow facts
Mangrove nursery
Its larvae, juveniles, and subadults use coastal estuaries, lagoons, and mangrove habitats.
Sources [1]
Night-shift feeder
Adults commonly stay buried during the day and search the seafloor at night.
Sources [1]