Fish of the Day 24 - I got that parrotfish in me

Today's second fish of the day is the parrotfish! I love how vibrant it is!!! >‿<

Parrotfish facts

- These colourful fish have a really weird diet: instead of eating other sea creatures or eating plants, they eat coral... sort of! They use their strong beaks and teeth to eat the algae off coral, which leads to them usually breaking off chunks of it off as well. Their body doesn't have much of a use for the coral, so... it passes through their digestive system, turns into sand, and they poo it out.

Despite eating coral, they aren't actually harming any reefs. Most species only choose to chomp on dead ones, which gives new coral the opportunity to grow! 

- As I mentioned before, parrotfish create sand. The crazy part about this behavior is that some species are able to poo as many as 2,000 pounds of sand a year! Because of this, parrotfish are responsable for the creation of some beaches. Have you ever seen those pretty white sand beaches in Hawaii? Yeah, you can thank the parrotfish for that. It's gross but super cool!

- Because of the parrotfish's coral eating tendancies, they have extra teeth in their throat to help break down the hard rock-like corals.

- Unlike other kinds of animals (both on land and in the sea), female parrotfish are actually more colourful than their male counterparts. This is used for the females to attract mates, which in most cases, is the other way around.

- There are over 90 species of parrotfish, with the most being in the indo-pacific ocean. The one i used for this blog entry's photo is the Rainbow Parrotfish.

- When they go to sleep, parrotfish will create a mucus sack to sleep in, almost like a cocoon. They do this to protect themselves from parasites, pathogens, and predators like sharks. If i saw my food was covered in snot, i wouldn't eat it either.

Do you got that parrotfish in you?