Key West Mangrove Snapper Fishing
This fish is mostly grey with darker colors on its dorsal and caudal fish. It also displays a variety of other small bars or spots depending on a variety of factors.
This snapper lives only in the southern Atlantic Ocean from the Carolinas to Brazil and everywhere in between. It is unique because of its ability to live not only in saltwater but brackish or even freshwater as well.
Mangrove snapper call home to canals, docks, shipwrecks, mangroves, debris, grass flats, and even the open water. Although, when traveling the open sea this fish sticks to the bottom of any nearby structure.
These creatures are found at a variety of depths from near the surface all the way down to almost two hundred feet. Juveniles tend to stay inshore near either soft or sandy areas but prefer seagrass beds.
The fish can live for as long as 25 years and reaches sexual maturity in just two, at a length of between seven and thirteen inches.
Spawning occurs from May through July with a spike on the full moons. The largest numbers of fish come together during the full moon.
Their diet changes over the course of the life of the fish. Larvae feed on plankton and juveniles on crustaceans, small fish, mollusks and sometimes worms. Adults, meanwhile, hunt at night for small fish, shrimp, crabs, gastropods and cephalopods.
Many animals prey on mangrove snapper including sharks, barracuda, moray eels and even other snapper species.