Fish vs. Prawn — What's the Difference?

Aquatic vertebrates with gills and fins.

A type of small to medium-sized shellfish.

A member of a diverse group of organisms.

Used in cuisines worldwide.

Used for food by humans and other animals.

Characterized by a segmented body and exoskeleton.

Symbolic in various cultures.

Caught both in the wild and farmed.

A target in recreational and commercial fishing.

Often confused with shrimp in some regions.

Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups.

Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs (which is a member of the order decapoda), some of which can be eaten.The term "prawn" is used particularly in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Commonwealth nations, for large swimming crustaceans or shrimp, especially those with commercial significance in the fishing industry. Shrimp that are present in this category often belong to the suborder Dendrobranchiata.

A person who is strange in a specified way

Any of various shrimps, especially one that is large or inhabits fresh water.

A flat plate that is fixed on a beam or across a joint in order to give additional strength.

The flesh of a prawn, used as food.

Catch or try to catch fish, typically by using a net or hook and line

To fish for prawns.

Search by groping or feeling for something concealed

A crustacean of the suborder Dendrobranchiata.

Mend or strengthen with a fish.

(Commonwealth) A crustacean, sometimes confused with shrimp.

Join (rails in a railway track) with a fishplate.

Synonym of butterface: A woman with an attractive body but an unattractive face.

Any of various jawless aquatic craniates, including the lampreys and hagfishes.

A fool, an idiot.

The flesh of such animals used as food.

Alternative form of porn.

(Informal) A person, especially one considered deficient in something

(intransitive) To fish for prawns.

To catch or try to catch fish.

Any one of numerous species of large shrimplike Crustacea having slender legs and long antennæ. They mostly belong to the genera Pandalus, Palæmon, Palæmonetes, and Peneus, and are much used as food. The common English prawn is Palæmon serratus.

To look for something by feeling one's way; grope

Any of various edible decapod crustaceans

To seek something in a sly or indirect way

Shrimp-like decapod crustacean having two pairs of pincers; most are edible

To catch or try to catch (fish).

Fish for prawns

To catch or try to catch fish in

To catch or pull as if fishing

Any animal (or any vertebrate) that lives exclusively in water.

(Newfoundland) Cod; codfish.

(uncountable) The flesh of the fish used as food.

(uncountable) A card game in which the object is to obtain cards in pairs or sets of four (depending on the variation), by asking the other players for cards of a particular rank.

A woman.

An easy victim for swindling.

A bad poker player. Compare shark (a good poker player).

A makeshift overlapping longitudinal brace, originally shaped roughly like a fish, used to temporarily repair or extend a spar or mast of a ship.

(nautical) A purchase used to fish the anchor.

A torpedo self-propelled explosive device.

(zoology) A paraphyletic grouping of the following extant taxonomic groups:

Class Myxini, the hagfish (no vertebrae)

Class Petromyzontida, the lampreys (no jaw)

Within infraphylum Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates (also including Tetrapoda))

(cartomancy) The thirty-fourth Lenormand card.

(prison slang) A new (usually vulnerable) prisoner.

A male homosexual; a gay man.

A period of time spent fishing.

An instance of seeking something.

(obsolete) A counter, used in various games.

(intransitive) To hunt fish or other aquatic animals in a body of water.

(transitive) To search (a body of water) for something other than fish.

To use as bait when fishing.

(intransitive) To (attempt to) find or get hold of an object by searching among other objects.

To talk to people in an attempt to get them to say something, or seek to obtain something by artifice.

Of a batsman, to attempt to hit a ball outside off stump and miss it.

To repair (a spar or mast) by fastening a beam or other long object (often called a fish) over the damaged part (see Noun above).

To hoist the flukes of.

A counter, used in various games.

A name loosely applied in popular usage to many animals of diverse characteristics, living in the water.

An oviparous, vertebrate animal usually having fins and a covering scales or plates. It breathes by means of gills, and lives almost entirely in the water. See Pisces.

The twelfth sign of the zodiac; Pisces.

The flesh of fish, used as food.

A purchase used to fish the anchor.

To attempt to catch fish; to be employed in taking fish, by any means, as by angling or drawing a net.

To seek to obtain by artifice, or indirectly to seek to draw forth; as, to fish for compliments.

To catch; to draw out or up; as, to fish up an anchor.

To search by raking or sweeping.

To try with a fishing rod; to catch fish in; as, to fish a stream.

The flesh of fish used as food;

(astrology) a person who is born while the sun is in Pisces

The twelfth sign of the zodiac; the sun is in this sign from about February 19 to March 20

Seek indirectly;

Catch or try to catch fish or shellfish;

Prawns do swim, but their method of locomotion, involving flexing their abdomen and tail, differs from the fin-based swimming of fish.

Prawns and shrimp are similar but belong to different suborders and can be differentiated by their gill structure, leg size, and the way their body segments overlap.

Yes, many fish and prawns coexist in similar aquatic environments, though their specific habitats and behaviors may differ.

Fish reproduction varies widely, with some species laying eggs and others bearing live young, known as viviparity.

Prawn farming contributes significantly to the economy by providing a source of income, employment, and meeting the high demand for seafood.

Yes, some prawn species thrive in freshwater environments, while others prefer brackish or saltwater habitats.

Prawns are generally omnivorous, feeding on a diet of algae, plankton, and small particles of organic matter.

Fish breathe through gills that extract oxygen from water, while prawns have feather-like gills beneath their carapace for respiration.

While many fish are edible and nutritious, some are toxic or endangered and should not be consumed.

Yes, overfishing, habitat destruction, and pollution have led to the endangerment of many fish species globally.

Fish sense their environment through a combination of lateral lines, which detect movement and vibration, and their keen sense of smell and vision.

Yes, their distinct body structures, such as the presence of fins in fish and the segmented exoskeleton in prawns, make them easily distinguishable.

Yes, prawns serve as both predators and prey in aquatic ecosystems, playing a crucial role in maintaining ecological balance.

It depends on the species, as some fish might prey on prawns, while others coexist peacefully, requiring careful selection and monitoring.