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There are around thirty species of snooks found in the tropical coastal regions of the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic oceans. These fish are found in all types of water including brackish, fresh and salt. Many of the smaller species of the snook are kept in aquariums while the medium and larger species have a good commercial value as edible fish. The common English name for snooks is the glass perch which is derived from a very striking characteristic of one species in the Chanda genus. This amazing small species of the genus have bodies that are completely transparent. When to you at one it is almost as if you are looking at an x-ray with the vertebral column and adjoining elements showing clearly. The swim bladder which is round in the females and tapered in the males shows clearly through their transparent bodies as well. Even though these interesting fish are too small to be of commercial value they can some times be found for sale in markets in Thailand. The glass fish, which is by far the most famous of this genus, feeds tirelessly on primitive crustaceans. The Thai Chandid is the largest member of the chandid genus and can be distinguished by the long second hard ray on the anal fin.
One of the most colorful of the snooks is the Gymnochanda filamentosa. This beautiful fish has a snout tip, extremely long rays of the second dorsal fin and anal fin that is a bright cinnamon red in the males. The tips of the longer fin rays are bluish white and in great contrast to the transparent yellow brown color of the fin. The skin of this fish is featureless and without scales. It is found in the brackish water areas of Malaya. Of the larger snooks the Centropomus has a head that is shaped much like the pikes. The mouth is large with a lower jaw that protrudes and its long body is some what flat. This fish is often found in tropical American waters and some have even been discovered in mangrove swamps where they migrate up stream to find pure fresh water. The Centropomus undecimalis is the largest and most commercially valued species of the snooks. It is distinguished by its swim bladder with blind sacs that is found at the front of its body. This species grows so rapidly that it has reached sexual maturity within two years. It is most often found along the sandy coastlines from South Carolina to Rio de Janeiro and in the mangrove forest of Florida.
Snooks that are popularly called the Old World giants of this family are found in the genus Lates. Of these, what is called the Barramundi in Australia or Plankapong holds the worlds record as the largest. Today this fish has a high commercial value as a food source and commands very high prices in most markets since it has been extensively fished for in its native habitat which has caused a decrease in the size of those that are being caught. Each season the plankapong is the cause of fishing expeditions between January and April in many of the Thai rivers. This is when the plankapong is moving up stream in the rivers to spawn. When the young hatch they return to coastal waters where food and hiding places are plentiful. Once there, they quickly grow into large specimens that are popular eating in the coastal regions of north eastern Australia, China, India and Japan. Another species of this genus was discovered living in the Nile River and has even been found in the tropical rivers in Africa.
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