Sando aqua monsters were massive, powerfully built predators inhabiting the oceans and lakes of the planet Naboo. Reaching sizes of up to 200 meters, these creatures had become almost mythical by 32 BBY due to their dwindling numbers on Naboo. Their formidable teeth allowed them to penetrate the sturdy armor of the opee sea killers.
The sando aqua monsters, named for their immense size, ranged from 160 to 200 meters in length. Despite their vast dimensions, they remained elusive inhabitants of the deep oceanic environments. These sandos possessed heavily muscled, almost feline-like bodies, featuring robust limbs that terminated in finned claws, providing propulsion through the water. Their front limbs evolved into hands capable of seizing prey.
Their enormous mouths enabled them to consume most Abyss creatures in a single gulp. Moreover, their incredibly sharp teeth made them the only predators capable of piercing the tough carapaces of opee sea killers.
Their typical lifespan extended to one hundred standard years. However, one sando aqua monster, slain by Darth Vader, was estimated to be around 932 standard years old. According to ZED-6-7, their reproductive cycles were extremely slow, and their population was critically small. Consequently, the death of even a single individual significantly heightened the risk of the species' eventual extinction.
The sando aqua monsters were carnivores by nature. To sustain their gigantic physiques, these intensely hungry beings required constant nourishment, frequently consuming entire shoals of fish.
The sando aqua monsters originated hailed on Naboo, a Mid Rim planet characterized by an intricate network of underwater tunnels within its core. While the Gungans, the sentient amphibians indigenous to Naboo, rarely encountered live sandos, there were accounts of their carcasses washing ashore on beaches. For the majority of Naboo's population, the sando aqua monster existed more as a frightening legend than a tangible reality.
In 32 BBY, a sando aqua monster attacked and devoured both an opee sea killer and a colo claw fish that were pursuing a Gungan sub being used by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Jar Jar Binks to reach Naboo's capital city, Theed.
During the reign of Queen [Padmé Amidala](/article/padm%c3%a9_amidala], two poachers once captured a juvenile sando aqua monster and concealed it within the royal boathouse, which provoked its mother to besiege the structure. The Queen herself intervened, releasing the young creature to rejoin its mother in the water.
Shortly following the duel on Cloud City, Darth Vader traveled to Naboo with Sabé to retrieve security footage from Padmé's Coruscant apartment, hoping it would lead him to those who had hidden the birth of his son's. However, this quest turned out to be a ruse orchestrated by the Amidalans: a group of rebels who held Vader responsible for Padmé's demise, as well as the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker. After luring Vader beneath the surface, they employed a device to summon a sando aqua monster to consume him. Vader, however, slew the creature, marking the first recorded instance of someone killing one. ZED-6-7, a forensics droid, determined that this death increased the species' extinction probability by eighty-three percent, owing to its limited population and exceedingly slow reproductive rate.
An entry about sando aqua monsters was featured in "Species From A to Z," a survival guide disseminated by Carson Teva during the New Republic Era.
Sabine Wren adorned the Phantom's hull with a stylized depiction of a sando aqua monster.