Find out more about the detailed habitat of giant prawns in nature before farming them in a pond.
Farming giant prawns is getting popular along with its increasing demand. Giant prawn, which is also known as a mini lobster, has a large size and a sweet taste. No wonder giant prawns have a high economic value for both consumption and export quality. If you are interested in raising giant prawns in a pond, you need to be well-informed about the characteristics and the detailed habitat of giant prawns in nature.
Giant Prawns
Giant Prawns (Macrobrachium rosenbergii), the giant freshwater prawn, live entirely in freshwater along the tropical and subtropical regions, such as Southeast Asia, India, and Northern Australia. Some countries like Africa, China, America, the Caribbean, Japan, New Zealand, Northern Australia, and also Thailand also start to grow and consume these prawns, too.
As the demand for giant prawns increases rapidly, many people begin to farm giant prawns on a big scale. They start to gather out the information about the ways how to farm giant prawns, including the habitat of giant prawns in nature and the stages of the prawns from the larval stage, planktonic stage, a juvenile, to a grown giant prawn until they can live thoroughly in a pond.
The Characteristics of Giant Prawns
As this prawn is large, the length of giant prawns may vary and reach over 30 cm or 12 inches. Covered with brownish hard and inelastic skin segments, the body of the prawns consists of the head of the chest (cephalothorax), body (abdomen), and tail (uropod).
Meanwhile, smaller individuals have greenish hard segments with faint vertical stripes. The giant prawn also has a rostrum which contains 8 to 11 ventral teeth and 11 to 14 dorsal teeth.
Either large giant prawns or small ones have walking legs that have different functions. The first pair of legs is more delicate as they use the legs for food projection. On the other hand, the second pair is larger and more powerful. The colors of the claws in the second pair of legs will vary and depend on their social dominance.
The Habitat of Giant Prawns
When it comes to the habitat of giant prawns, the prawns live in two different habitats depending on the stages. The prawns love to live in a highly turbid condition. The grown giant prawns live in tropical freshwater, especially at the bottom of the freshwater area. Meanwhile, the larvae and juveniles require a brackish water environment before entering the post-larvae stage.
The female giant prawns will approach and swim from downstream to estuaries to lay eggs. Then the eggs will enter the larval phase and become the free-swimming larvae (planktonic) and juvenile in the brackish water environments. When the prawns pass the larvae and juvenile stage, the grown-up giant prawns will go swimming upstream to the freshwater environment and start to spawn again.
In conclusion, the habitat of giant prawns can be different depending on the behavior and stages. The larvae and juveniles will live in a brackish water environment and gradually approach and swim upstream to a freshwater area when they become mature.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrobrachium_rosenbergii
https://thefishsite.com/articles/cultured-aquaculture-species-giant-river-prawn
http://www.fao.org/fishery/affris/opisanie-vidov/giant-river-prawn/giant-river-prawn-home/ru/