#scaridae

Rainbow Parrotfish (Scarus guacamaia), family Scaridae, order Labriformes, off the coast of Florida, USA

A tricolor parrotfish (Scarus tricolor) off the coast of Komba Island, Indonesia

Princess parrotfish (Scarus taeniopterus) terminal phase male off the coast of Cozumel in Mexico

Parrotfish come in all shapes, sizes and colours and can be found within tropical waters, most prominently in the Indo-Pacific. Their favourite places to live are coral reefs, rocky coastlines and seagrass forests.

Quoy's parrotfish (Scarus quoyi) - François Libert

Why do I like them so much? Well, they take part in a key role within ecosystems, called bioerosion.

Have you ever been to a white, sandy beach before? That is the work of parrotfish! They are predominantly herbivores, scraping algae off of rocks and coral, with some also being able to slice through tough macroalgae (seaweeds). My personal favourites are the corallivores - parrotfish that exclusively feed on coral.

Because of their sophisticated diets, parrotfish have evolved very fancy dentition, where their teeth have rearranged over time to become beak-like (hence their name!) along with evolving strong jaw muscles and a mill-like structure (called a pharyngeal mill), which helps them grind up their food.

Tricolour parrotfish (Scarus tricolor) - François Libert

Since they scrape along coral and other rocky substances all day, they tend to ingest a lot of minerals, including calcium, which is eventually excreted. Long story short, those white sandy beaches are actually the hard work of bioerosion carried out by hundreds of thousands of parrotfish over millions of years.

Just one humphead parrotfish can produce 90kg of sand per day!

School of blue parrotfish (Scarus coeruleus) - Gérard Cachon

Without parrotfish, we wouldn't have those beautiful beaches. But more importantly, they are absoloutely key to the health and structure of tropical reefs.

Tricolour parrotfish (Scarus tricolor) - François Libert

Hey! You’re early!

Instead of somethin scary I got some Scaridae - have some parrotfish eye candy 🌈

Tricolored parrot fish (Scarus tricolor)

absolutely!!

when he was younger, Fugo went through a phase of school stress/anxiety so bad that he became physically ill 

he has a collection of fruit shaped earrings he likes to wear when he’s in a good mood

tch........ whatever dude