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Parrotfish
(Family Scaridae) They say that most of the worlds' coral sand is produced by these herbivorous fishes. Their teeth are fused and beaklike and used to scrape algae off the coral limestone or to bite off chunks of coral. It can actual ingest coral and grin it up with special bones in the throat. This fine sand is then extracted and expelled in a cloud through the anus. They are known to secrete a mucus envelope around them when they sleep at night. The advantage of this is not known and not all of them do it. This possibly protects them from eels, which hunt at night by smell, from crustacean parasites. They are an ichthyologist's nightmare. Their color patterns can differ within a species, depending on sex and age, and some even can change their pattern at the blink of an eye. There are initial phases to contend with when most of these fish are drab. Terminal phase parrotfishes are always male and usually brightly colored. These males are always sex-reversed females. Because of this species confusion, I am not 100% certain about the identification of the two following species in the photos. Bullethead Parrotfish It has a bullet-shaped head profile that is symmetrical above and below the mouth. Terminal males are greenish with cheeks or sides often washed with yellow-orange. Some are all green with scales lined with pink edges. Initial adults are grayish in front expanding to dark brown-black often with a broad, white bar at the base of the tail. Redlip Parrotfish This parrotfish's humped snout is typical of this species. Both initial and terminal stages usually reveal a distinct bicolor pattern; the front half is dark, the back half is light. Initial adults are brownish and red in front and yellowish gray in back. There are also numerous, short black lines at odd angles on the sides. Beaks are reddish to white. Terminal males are green and darker in the front half and lighter in the back. The beaks are also green, and the humped snout becomes more evident. |
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