Red Bay Snook at LFS

[tankmates]

I was in a LFS today and was surprised to see 9 6" red bay snook in a large tank. The fish were very colorful and active.

Does anyone have experience with these fish? They look like they would get pretty large and did not seem to be overly aggressive.

Any thoughts?

 

[santoury]

They do get a bit large, and yes, they aren't very aggressive - Great fish, a bit "dull" personality wise, but interesting. A pleasure to keep - no trouble.

 

[Bderick67]

Well I've only had mine for 3 weeks and they are small. From what I've read males get up to 20" with females being 12".

 

[Stab]

Both of the above comments are correct. Yes, their personality appears to be somewhat dull comparing to other large cichlids but thats because most of their time is spent lurking in search food. They are not aggressive but I've noticed that females will stake out small territories that they will try to protect, while males tend to roam free. This could also explain size descrepancy between sizes, since roaming males would be able to get more food than sedentary females

I have 4 snooks: 2 8" males and 2 5" females. There seems however to be only one pair (perhaps one of the alleged females is just a small male?). They have bred for me a couple of times but havent managed to produce viable young. These are fish great fish despite getting big. They turn very showy with age (especially males) with their pearly scales against carrot-red background. They exibit some very interesting behavior when eating, and unlike many other guapodes tend to get along with one another despite having occasional squables. The main requirements when keeping these are to provide them with sufficiant room and ensure clean, well oxiginated water (mine seem very suseptible to any traces on amonia)