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 ABOUTfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanJun 7, 10 Comments Off
Hello everyone, Aimee here. I hope your weekend was a nice one and that spring/summer is hitting your area. As for us; we are sweating it out! I believe our seasons are hot and hotter, oh and sometimes a monsoon rain. Ha. This is a great photo for you tonight to be able to see up close the mouth of a parrotfish, which is actually called a “beak” just like in a bird. These beaks are very strong, and they have to be, just look at what he is eating! His teeth are actually fused together into this powerful beak, enabling the fish to rasp the algae from the dead coral. If you are diving and your breathing is quiet, you can even hear the scraping! By doing this kind of feeding, lots of calcium carbonate is digested by the parrotfish, and the remains that leave the parrotfish are actually what make up the beautiful coral reef sand! Many times as parrotfish swim past you will be able to see huge clouds of this “gut sand” trailing after the fish and settling down on the reef. Think about that the next time you see a beautiful Caribbean beach!
I personally really like this particular kind of parrotfish because of his name. If you look closely you can see the bright yellow spot at the upper point of the gill cover. Well, he is called a Stoplight Parrotfish because of this! Parrotfish are some of the most interesting fish to observe; they are always busy forging and feeding, they look very different from juvenile to adult phases and they can change sex from females to males (protogynous hermaphroditism). Usually if a male dies the largest and strongest female will then change into the new (lucky) male. Quite a strategy! Fish are really amazing creatures.
Have a great day, make the most of it! Aimee
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