The parrotfish a diver sees most and photographs least: males blue-green with a pale snout and a pink cheek patch, females plain gray-brown, both grazing shallow rock in loose groups. Up to 43 cm (17 in).
Parrotfish do not eat coral for the coral. The beak scrapes the thin film of algae and cyanobacteria growing on dead limestone, taking rock with it, and a throat mill grinds the mouthful before digestion. That grazing is what stops a reef being smothered: on reefs where parrotfish have been fished out, algae take over within a few seasons and coral larvae have nowhere clean to settle.
The by-product is sand. Everything scraped off is passed as fine white grains, and a single fish produces hundreds of kilos a year, so the beaches around a healthy reef are largely parrotfish output.
Like the rest of the family it sleeps in a mucus cocoon, changes sex and color on the way up the hierarchy, and is spear-fished heavily at night, when a sleeping fish in a crevice is trivially easy to take.
The genus.Scarus Forsskål 1775 - skaros (ancient Greek name of Sparisoma cretense). ETYFish
The species.Scarus psittacus Forsskål 1775 - parrot. ETYFish
How to recognise it
males blue-green with a pink-orange patch on the cheek and a pale snout
females plain gray-brown with a pale belly, often in small groups
This species is fished in some parts of its range where destructive fishing practices and habitat destruction are prevalent. In Guam, it is the 3rd most important species in numbers and 6th most important species by weight. Catch declined by 74% during 1985-2007 (R.F. Myers pers comm. 2009). In most parts of its range, this species is not targeted and is mainly caught as bycatch. These threats are not considered to affect the overall status of its population.
Parrotfishes show varying degrees of habitat preference and utilization of coral reef habitats, with some species spending the majority of their life stages on coral reefs, while others primarily utilize seagrass beds, mangroves, algal beds, and /or rocky reefs. Although the majority of the parrotfishes occur in mixed habitat (primarily inhabiting seagrass beds, mangroves, and rocky reefs) approximately 78% of these mixed habitat species are experiencing greater than 30% loss of coral reef area and habitat quality across their distributions. Of those species that occur exclusively in coral reef habitat, more than 80% are experiencing a greater than 30% of coral reef loss and degradation across their distributions. However, more research is needed to understand the long-term effects of habitat loss and degradation on these species populations. Widespread coral reef loss and declining habitat conditions are particularly worrying for species that depend on live coral reefs for food and shelter especially as studies have shown that protection of pristine habitats facilitate the persistence of adult populations in species that have spatially separated adult and juvenile habitats. Furthermore, coral reef loss and declining habitat conditions are particularly worrying for some corallivorous excavating parrotfishes that play major roles in reef dynamics and sedimentation (Comeros-Raynal et al. 2012).
Threat classification from the IUCN Red List.
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