Giant tiger prawn
Amazing fact
Giant tiger prawns detect predators and prey by sensing vibrations with their antennae.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
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Giant tiger prawns detect predators and prey by sensing vibrations with their antennae.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Giant tiger prawn
- Scientific name
- Penaeus monodon
- Japanese name
- ウシエビ（ブラックタイガー）
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Malacostraca
- Order
- Decapoda
- Family
- Penaeidae
- Genus
- Penaeus
It lives from the Pacific side of Japan south of Tokyo Bay to Taiwan, southern China, Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia and other places.
It has clear black-and-white stripes on its back and tail.
By day it often stays buried in the seafloor, coming out at night to feed.
How the Giant tiger prawn lives
Newly hatched larvae feed on their stored yolk. Later larvae filter plankton and other small organisms from the water. When searching the seafloor for food, it picks it up with its walking legs and mouthparts. Adults move into deeper water and live on rocky or muddy seafloors.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Weight
- 100–320 gUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Lifespan
- 2–3 years in the wild, about 2 years in the wild, about 2 years in captivityUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Diet
- Mollusks and small crustaceansUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Range
- Pacific coast south of Tokyo Bay, Taiwan, southern China, Southeast Asia, Australia, Africa, and elsewhere鳥羽水族館
Where the Giant tiger prawn has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 简体中文
- 斑节对虾
- 繁體中文
- 草對蝦
- 한국어
- 얼룩새우
- Español
- Langostino jumbo
- Français
- Crevette géante tigrée
- Português (Brasil)
- Camarão-trigre-gigante
- Italiano
- Gambero gigante indopacifico
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Udang windu
- Tiếng Việt
- Tôm sú
- Türkçe
- Jumbo karides
- ไทย
- กุ้งกุลาดำ
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — ウシエビChecked: 2026-11-04
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Penaeus monodonChecked: 2026-11-04
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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