The typical laa was a green-scaled fish with a long snout and a broad tail. The laa also had a long, thin dorsal fin tipped with a bio-luminescent bulb. This bulb helped attract the favorite prey of the laa, the yobshrimp. Laa also picked out yobshrimp from the gills of tee, which, despite being voracious, did not harm the laa for the yobshrimp were parasitic to the tee.
A group of laas, one about to eat a yobshrimp
Like several other fish, the laa were attracted to the bright lights of Otoh Gunga, but learned by experience not to pass through the membrane openings to the air-filled domes.
Laa existed in the waters of the Mid Rim planet Naboo during the invasion of the planet by the Trade Federation. They were present in Lake Paonga as Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the Gungan Jar Jar Binks swam down to the city of Otoh Gunga to speak with Gungan representatives. In 20 BBY, laa, along with ray, faa and mee, were present in a holding tank aboard the Titavian IV, an exploration vessel formerly operated by the Intergalactic Zoological Society on Mycroft whose mission was to gather and catalog specimens from across the galaxy.
Laa, along with its musically-influenced scalefish cousins, the doo, ray, mee, faa, see, and tee, first appeared in the deep waters of Naboo in the 1999 prequel trilogy film Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace. They were later illustrated by Terryl Whitlatch in the 2001 reference book The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide, and referenced in the 2004 comic Republic 69.