Common Prawn

Let's take a break from our teleost fish (don't worry, this fancy word is already outdated so I'm not really showing off), and let's head on down to crustacea town.

Crustaceans. There's tons of them, in all shapes and sizes and species. But the one I care about today is the common prawn, known to boffins as Palaemon serratus. 

I take great delight informing people that, that thing by the rock they've pointed at and don't know what it is, is actually a common prawn! or shrimp! depending on which word pops out my mouth first. It doesn't matter really.. I don't think. Prawns and shrimps are sort of the same thing, it just depends on your preference as to what to call it. Even wikipedia refers to it as both in the first sentence. Ahhh, credibility, maybe.

Palaemon serratus, also called the common prawn, is a species of shrimp (source: wikipedia, 31.12.2012 at 13.00.)

So, after I've informed someone it's a prawn or shrimp the next thing I let them know is "It's that pink swirly thing you eat (if you eat prawns)" I've learnt not to be so presumptuous. And I'm usually met with a wide gaped expression of either horror or fascination.

Prawns are transparent when alive, and have faces and legs too, when they've been cooked they turn pink, and their heads and legs and shell is all peeled away.

I don't want to give all the good crustacean stuff away but prawns have exoskeletons, just like all the other crustaceans. This basically means outside skeleton. This is their skin, and also their protection because inside this exoskeleton is the soft body of the animal. They have no bones inside, the bones is the skin outside, which means they moult... but I'm saving that for a crab. Not that the prawn doesn't deserve it, it's just I have better crab moult resources to share.

I've bonded quite well with these prawns over the years, like other shrimp species they're happy to pick away at food with their chelipeds (that's claws to you and me). You can stick your hand in and depending on the sociability of the prawn they may come over to have a nibble at your dry, dead skin. Nom. Most the time though they keep out the way, especially if you're trying to demonstrate that they will come over to "clean" your hand. Can't say I blame them really.

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