Parrotfish are bright-coloured fish found in and around coral reefs. They have fused teeth resembling a parrot beak which they use to scrape algae and seaweeds from the surface of corals and rocks, thereby helping the reefs stay healthy. They grind up the calcium carbonate reef material and excrete it as fine white sand.
Parrot fishes range to a length of about 1.2 metres (4 feet) and weight of about 20 kilograms (45 pounds), or occasionally larger. They are variable in colour, the male of a species often differing considerably from the female, and the young may differ from the adult. Parrot fishes are protogynous hermaphrodites; that is, they first function as females and later transform into males.
Parrot fishes are edible but are not, as a group, of great economic importance. The surf, or rivulated, parrot fish (Callyodon fasciatus) is an Indo-Pacific representative of the family; it grows to 46 centimetres (18 inches) or more, and the male is green and orange or red, the female blue and yellow. Atlantic species include the rainbow parrot fish, which grows to about 90 centimetres and is bright orange and green with a blue beak, and the queen parrot fish (Scarus vetula), which grows to about 50 centimetres and is blue with green, red, and orange if male but reddish or purplish with a white stripe if female.
Credit : Britannica
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