By Raz AS –
Red snapper, red snapper or ungah with its scientific name lutjanus argentimaculatusis a species of fish from the family lutjanidae.
In English as in Australia, this fish is known as mangrove jackwhile in the west, it is better known by names such as creek red bream, the stuart evader, dog bream, mangrove red snapper, purple sea perch, purple sea-perch, red bass, red bream, red perch, red reef bream, river roman and rock barramundi.
Unga fish can be found in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean from the coast of Africa to Samoa, Australia and Southeast Asia.
The color of ungah fish differs from one another depending on the water conditions and its age, some are orange-orange, copper, bronze and dark red.
Younger kingfish caught in estuaries are often darker in color than kingfish caught offshore in reef areas.
Like other fish from the lutjanidae family, ungah fish have sharp teeth like fangs that are used to attack and hold their prey.
This fish is also very aggressive and can cause injury to anglers who do not carefully handle it.
The ungah fish is a nocturnal predatory species. It starts actively looking for its prey at night whose main diet consists of small fish, crustaceans such as shrimp and crab, and molluscs.
As an opportunistic predator that likes to ambush its prey, ungah fish will hide in structured and varied areas such as mangrove roots, fallen trees, stone walls and others, where the young fish often hide to seek protection .
There are many ungah fish found in estuary areas with mangrove forests.
However, this fish will migrate to the open sea, especially to areas with coral reefs after it grows to mate.
The species is very popular in both commercial and recreational fishing.
It has a high value in the market because it is known for its good taste.
In addition, it is also a game that is desired by many anglers because of its speed of acceleration after grabbing the bait.
Many anglers have white eyes for failing to prevent these fish from entering the structure due to being caught off guard.