Lots of people asked me for my opinion about this thread. My unsalted opinion? This is BS. https://twitter.com/LRBbookshop/status/1301469852599754753

The thread claims that prawns cannot be properly photographed because they are bioluminescent, and that a company genetically modified 6 prawns that are now used over and over again for food photos.

I will stand corrected, but as far as I can tell most prawns are not bioluminescent. Some shrimp species are, though: https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/shell-of-bioluminescent-shrimp-not-only-glows-but-detects-light/

Even if they would be slightly bioluminescent, that light would be so weak that it would not ruin a photo taken with a flash. You might only see it when it is pitch dark.

Second, how could the same 6 shrimp be used in many food photos? Unlike a McD's hamburger, shrimp do not stay fresh very long.

What would be a real option is that the shrimp used in food photography are made of plastic. Food photography uses a lot of tricks to make food look fresh. E.g. dry ice for steam, paraffin water droplets, and plastic ice cubes.

The photos in thread are too low quality to recognize the shrimp, and I suspect this is some joke, so I am not going to try. But I can imagine that there is a company selling the same set of 6 plastic shrimp to food photographers