---
title: Candelamoa Parrotfish (Hipposcarus harid)
scientific_name: Hipposcarus harid
common_name: Candelamoa Parrotfish
taxon: Parrotfishes
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-15T13:49:01.563Z
updated: 2026-08-20T23:08:10.994Z
tags: Candelamoa Parrotfish, Hipposcarus harid, Parrotfishes, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/parrotfishes/candelamoa-parrotfish
---

# Candelamoa Parrotfish (*Hipposcarus harid*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Parrotfishes (*Scaridae*)
- **Size:** up to 75 cm
- **Weight:** 2.5 Kg
- **Depth:** 1-25 m
- **Diet:** Herbivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Sand and rubble beside reef, often in loose schools
- **Reproduction:** Protogynous hermaphrodite
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- long sloping snout, noticeably more pointed than any Scarus here
- pale gray-pink body, terminal males greener with a blue-edged tail
- often in loose schools moving over sand
- up to 75 cm

It is the parrotfish with a nose. Where the Scarus species have blunt, steep, almost vertical foreheads, this genus draws the snout out into a long slope, and once you have registered the profile you can pick it out of a mixed group at distance.

The shape follows the work. A blunt-headed parrotfish bites down into rock at close to a right angle, which is what you want for excavating. A long snout works at a shallower angle, better for scraping surfaces and picking at flatter ground, and this species spends much of its time over sand and rubble beside the reef rather than on the coral itself.

It also schools. Loose groups of several dozen move across open bottom together, which is unusual in a family where most species work alone or in small harems, and a passing school of pale pink parrotfish over white sand is one of the better sights on a shallow dive here.

The regional guide prints it as the Indian longnose parrotfish, which is a better description of the animal than the name it carries here.

## Also known as

- **English:** Candelamoa parrotfish, Indian Ocean Longnose Parrotfish, longnose parrotfish
- **Hebrew:** תוכינון חד-ראש
- **French:** Kakatoi Blanc, Perroquet candelamoa, Poisson-perroquet Chevalin
- **Italian:** pesce pappagallo muso lungo indiano
- **German:** Indische Langnase
- **Spanish:** Loro Candelamoa
- **Portuguese:** Papagaio Candelamoa, Peixe-papagaio-de-focinho-comprido-indiano
- **Dutch:** Langsnuitpapegaaivis
- **Czech:** ploskozubec harid
- **Russian:** Харид
- **CA:** Peix lloro de nas llarga indi
- **DIV:** Landaa
- **SW:** Pono
- **TH:** ปลานกแก้วจมูกยาว

## Scientific synonyms

- *Callyodon harid* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Hipposcarus harid vexillus* Smith, 1959
- *Pseudoscarus harid* (Forsskål, 1775)
- *Scarus cyanurus* Valenciennes, 1840
- *Scarus harid* Forsskål, 1775

## Range

Djibouti, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/parrotfishes/candelamoa-parrotfish)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*