Macrobrachium rosenbergii, also known as the giant river prawn or giant freshwater prawn, is a commercially important species of palaemonid freshwater prawn. It is found throughout the tropical and subtropical areas of the Indo-Pacific region, from India to Southeast Asia and Northern Australia. The giant freshwater prawn has also been introduced to parts of Africa, Thailand, Philippines, China, Japan, New Zealand, the Americas, and the Caribbean. It is one of the biggest freshwater prawns in the world, and is widely cultivated in several countries for food. While M. rosenbergii is considered a freshwater species, the larval stage of the animal depends on brackish water. Once the individual shrimp has grown beyond the planktonic stage and becomes a juvenile, it lives entirely in fresh water.
It is also known as the Malaysian prawn, freshwater scampi (India), or cherabin (Australia). Locally, it is known as golda chingri (Bengali: গলদা চিংড়ি) in Bangladesh and India, udang galah in Indonesia and Malaysia, uwáng or uláng in the Philippines, Thailand prawn in Southern China and Taiwan (Chinese: Tàiguó xiā 泰國蝦), and kung maenam (กุ้งแม่น้ำ) or kung kam kram (กุ้งก้ามกราม) in Thailand.
