Cubera or Mangrove snapper: Fish ID

Sounds like crucial piece of evidence was destroyed (a tooth patch....but just for fun...

Cubera or Mango?

It was 9.1 #s.

snapers are mangro and shark is a nurse

It's actually not a nurse shark...

I'm being told on another forum that the only way to tell the difference between a cubera and mangrove is a tooth patch...others say not so

If it is indeed a Mangrove...it's a big one...

Record is 16#s, this was 9.1!

Defiantly a mangrove. The cuberra will have the to canines exposed with a closed mouth.

http://www.floridaconservation.org/marine/fishid/snapcube.html

We catch them 8-10 lbs quite often in the GOM

d-a

its either a blackfin, or a red-

I cant tell from the picture- blackfins have a black spot on the side fins. Reds dont.

common name is always mangrove- its just easier. Blackfins are commonly found wherever Vermilion snapper are- they like a little deeper water. Red are found throughout the water column, but like inshore waters better when their small.

You`ll know a Cubera when you see one- like stated above, those teeth stick out like Draculas dentures- big ugly and mean looking.

Gray Snappers AKA: Mangrove Snappers, are scape goats of the snapper world- people call them several things, but a mangrove snapper is almost always gray with stripes, or all gray, some to most have theblack eye stripe- we called them school master snappers- some call them mangrove- but technically, their Grays.

It's a mangrove.
The previous post about the Cubera's canines is dead on. It is definitely not a ARS. Red snapper are actually more pink and rounded than the mongrove.
Black Snapper are very deep water snapper usually only caught by deep dropping with electric reels.
The shark could be one of many species in the gulf but it is most likely a Gulf Pointed Nose. It is not a nurse or a balcktip.

Definately a gray (mangrove) snapper. There are some BIG ones on the high relief spots in the gulf from May-September when they aggregate to spawn. A 9.1# mangrove is not unusal for this time of the year. We've been catching quite a few in that range over some wrecks out of Carrabelle and St. George Island. Our best method has been chumming them to surface and freelining very small pieces of cut bait on small hooks with light line. What a blast! Congrats on a great catch and most likely an even better dinner.

snapper

I have no idea on the shark, so many sharks are protected now you have to be careful if you keep one.

No question it's a mangrove/gray snapper & a nice one, the bigger ones I have caught offshore always seem to have that bronze color although I have caught some inshore like that too. A lot of people in the gulf call them black snapper, not to be confused with the actual black snapper!

I have never heard a mangrove being called a schoolmaster, but that wouldn't suprise me. Red Porgy's are often called white snapper. The Schoolmaster's we spear on the reefs in the bahamas have a yellow tail & yellow fins. I believe those are actual schoolmaster snapper.

I took some pictures of a huge cubera I saw snorkling a few weeks ago, the teeth are a dead give away. I'll try to post if they come out.

Hard to see b/c used a cell phone but the fish in the bottom right corner is the biggest/fattest mangrove I have caught, we also had a problem with the ice that day:

Hunting Teacher said:

It's a mangrove.
The previous post about the Cubera's canines is dead on. It is definitely not a ARS. Red snapper are actually more pink and rounded than the mongrove.
Black Snapper are very deep water snapper usually only caught by deep dropping with electric reels.
The shark could be one of many species in the gulf but it is most likely a Gulf Pointed Nose. It is not a nurse or a balcktip.

Click to expand...

Mangrove, no doubt. We caught them to over 12 lbs when I was in Venice last month. They're also called grays and blacks. There are a type of deep water snappers called blacks, also.

Mangrove, Cubera tend to be tropical until the grow big, then they wander. I read a tagging study about cubera a while back that said the small ones are limited to places with shallow stoney coral but once they get big they become wide ranging and can be found the Gulf over and on up the Atlantic coast. I have never caught a small one, I caught some nice ones down in ol' Mexico though.

mango