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Home › Sea Wildlife › Marine Species › Vertebrates › Snapper

Interesting Facts about Snappers

[Snapper Phylum: Chordata] [Class: Actinopterygii] [Order: Acanthuriformes] [Family: Lutjanidae]

With more than 100 different species, snappers are a diverse group of medium-sized fishes that have commercial and ecological importance.

This section contains a collection of fun facts about snapper fish (Lutjanidae), including where to find them, what they eat, and how these broadcast spawners reproduce.

Snapper Fish Geographic Range and Habitat

There are dense populations of the snapper family in most tropical and subtropical oceans worldwide.

Even though they also exist in some warm-temperate waters, the vast majority of the species occur in:

• Atlantic Ocean (Massachusetts, the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and Brazil)
• Indian Ocean (the Philippines,Thailand, Vietnam, western Australia)
• Pacific Ocean (Fiji, Japan, southern Queensland, the coast of Tasmania)

Juvenile snappers usually spend their early years growing up near shallow coastal nurseries, especially mangroves, seagrass beds, and estuaries.

But as adults, most of the snapper species tend to thrive better near solid structures that provide them with lots of food and shelter, such as coral formations and deep rocky reefs.

Most of the snappers fish live in saltwater seas and marine oceans, typically at depths ranging between thirty (30) and eighty (80) metres.

Even so, they are also found in much deeper waters (approaching 600 metres) and some types of snappers thrive in freshwater environments.

Characteristics of Snappers Fish

Besides various kinds of snapper breeds, the Lutjanidae family also includes the fusilier fish species (Caesionidae), noted for their diversity in size, shape, and body colours.

As a consequence of that, both species share some general characteristics, eating habits, and behavioural traits.

For example:

An elongated and streamlined body, with a continuous dorsal fin, helps when they need to generate fast bursts of speed.

They have a large mouth, razor sharp canine-like teeth, powerful jaws to seize crustaceans and small fishes. The general body colouration of the adults mostly involves some red, silver, and yellow, often with spots or stripes.

Here's the thing:

Most species of snapper exhibit a strong social structure. Like the fusiliers, they are often seen swimming in large schools, especially during the juvenile phase.

Snappers are predatory reef-associated, carnivorous creatures that are not afraid of defending their chosen patch on the reef.

Snapper Fish Size and Weight

The overall size of most snapper fish species ranges between thirty (30) and sixty (60) centimetres long (up to 24 inches).

Yet, the cubera snapper is one of the biggest and it can grow to more than 1.5 metres in total body length (around 5 feet) and weigh more than fifty (50) kilograms.

In comparison, the crimson snapper (Lutjanus erythropterus) measuring less than three (3) centimetres long (one inch) is one of the smallest.

Fun Fact: Did you ever wonder... Why is a snapper fish called a snapper? Actually, they get their funny scientific fish names because of the sharp snapping sound that they make when they snap their powerful jaws closed, such as when they're eating.

What Do Snappers Eat?

Even though there are a few plankton-feeders, the vast majority of the snapper species are pure carnivores that feed on a combination of:

• Crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, shrimps)
• Mollusks (cuttlefish, octopus, squids)
• Polychaete worms
• Small fishes (including fish fry)

Their feeding style is typical of other opportunistic nocturnal hunters that also come out of their crevices to feed at dusk. They use their strong jaws and sharp fang structures to capture their prey - often swallowing it whole.

Types of Snapper Fish Species

How Do Snappers Reproduce?

Most marine vertebrates have a conventional reef fish reproductive strategy, including being gonochoristic (having separate male and female sexes).

Snapper fish (family Lutjanidae) reproduce through a process known as "broadcast spawning" which usually takes place at dusk or dawn.

In other words:

They spawn in large congregations and release eggs and sperm into the open water. Doing so often increases the likelihood of fertilisation and it also reduces some predation on the eggs.

Following a successful external fertilisation, the eggs continue drifting with the ocean currents for about thirty (30) hours until they hatch.

However...

There's no parental care, and their population growth relies on the high number of eggs produced by highly fecund females instead.

Fertilised eggs hatch into planktonic larvae during the pelagic larvae phase of the process, feeding on microscopic plankton.

After the larvae grow, and start developing into juveniles, they will find a suitable 'nursery habitat' to settle. Here, they will mature into adults and eventually migrate to offshore coral reefs, ledges, artificial reef structures (such as sunken shipwrecks), sea caves, and submerged caverns.

Snapper Predators and Threats

The reproductive strategy tends to ensure that a high proportion of the offspring will survive. Even so, the snapper species face a high rate of predation and other environmental challenges beyond their control.

Despite a relatively long lifespan of up to forty (40) years, the smallest snappers fall victim to a number of natural predators, especially:

• Barracudas
• Groupers
• Jacks
• Jellyfish
• Moray eels
• Reef sharks

It's fair to say overfishing and bycatch have an effect on a significant amount of sea wildlife and vulnerable marine species in the seas and oceans.

Besides being caught "accidentally" in bottom longlines and trawls, other issues environmental include:

• Climate change (rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification)
• Pollution in the ocean (especially plastics and mid-range mercury levels)
• Loss of natural habitats (reef degradation and destruction)

Although many reef snappers are regarded by humans as tasty food sources, certain species can produce a food-borne illness. For example the Atlantic dog snapper is known to be contaminated with ciguatera toxin produced by dinoflagellates (found on dead coral and algae).

Interesting Fact: An assessment issued by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species shows that the conservation status of most snapper fishes worldwide is of "Least Concern" (LC). But, data gathered in 2015 shows the cubera snapper (Lutjanus cyanopterus) is "Vulnerable" (VU) with a "Decreasing" population trend.

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