The diet includes larval and adult insects, algae, mollusks, worms, fish, and feces of fish and other animals. At high densities, or under conditions of food limitations, prawns become cannibalistic. As they change to the juvenile stage, they take on the bluish to brownish color of the adult stage. Adult Older juveniles and adults usually have a distinctive blue-green color, although sometimes they may take on a brownish hue. Color is usually the result of the quality and type of diet.
Adult males are larger than the females, and the sexes are easily distinguishable.
The walking legs of males are set close together in nearly parallel lines, with little open space between them, which helps distinguish immature males from females. A wide gap exists between the last pair of walking legs in females, and they have a genital opening on the base of the third pair of walking legs. Three types of males have been identified, based upon external characteristics. The transformational sequence is from OC to SOC to BC males. BC and some smaller OC males are the most reproductively active and successful at mating.