#steephead parrotfish

[blondebrainpowered]

The atolls are home to steephead parrotfish ( Chlorurus microrhinos ) and many other types of marine creatures.

Photographer: Enric Sala / National Geographic Pristine Seas

[i-give-you-a-fish]

May I have a fish please? Perhaps one that, if represented as a mermaid tail, would match the blue/greens of my hair. Thank you very much ^-^

Hatsune Miku colored fish

You get a Steephead Parrotfish

Chlorurus microrhinos

[terranlifeform]

[nature-and-biodiversity-blog]

Steephead Parrotfish Chlorurus microrhinos Source: Here

[todropscience]

Parrotfish literally farm algae on coral reefs

Parrotfish are esential to coral ecosystem, these colorful fishes with fused teeth that form a bird-like beak, spend up to 90% of their day nibbling, eating algae off of coral reefs, in other words they clean corals, and then they poop sand. Now, a new recent study have shown that Steephead parrotfish (Chlorurus microrhinos) in the central Pacific “farm” their food by strategically rotating through algae patches, revisiting the same feeding spot at regular intervals, and waiting for each patch to regrow before feeding on it again. And they defend their feeding territory while the food patches recuperate sufficiently.

Coral reefs are very complex ecosystems  and parrotfish are vital to coral subsistance. Turf algae have been shown to be harmful, even lethal, to juvenile corals. When the parrotfish bites scrape the coral, they create pockets of space without the algae, which may enable tiny coral larvae to settle and grow. Sadly,parrotfish have been overfished and Caribbean reefs have gotten increasingly furry with algae over the past for decade, resulting in a far less pretty picture, and a far less productive and resilient ecosystem

Photo:  Paddy Ryan 

Reference: Carlson et al. 2017. Fine-scale spatial patterns of parrotfish herbivory are shaped by resource availability. Mar Ecol Prog

[oceansoftheworld]

(Photo by Richard Ling)

Steephead parrotfish (Chlorurus microrhinos) are usually green-blue overall with a pinkish bar on each scale. The tooth plates are blue-green, there is a blue-green band above the mouth and a wider one below, and an irregular blue-green line crosses the cheek. This species also has a less common red phase.The Steephead Parrotfish grows to 70 cm in length and it occurs in tropical marine waters of the Western and Central Pacific. See this post for more on parrotfish.

(Source)