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Humphead Parrotfish — printable fact sheet
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Humphead Parrotfish
Bolbometopon muricatum
The parrotfish eats the reef. Its teeth are fused into a heavy beak, and behind that sits a second set — a pharyngeal mill in the throat, which grinds up what the beak has bitten off. It scrapes and bites chunks of coral to get at the algae growing in and on it, digests the alga…
Did you know?
- Despite their massive size and tough beaks, humphead parrotfish are known to sleep in groups in shallow reef areas, sometimes even producing a mucous cocoon to mask their scent from predators.
- It bites off chunks of coral, digests the algae and excretes the rock — much of a tropical beach's white sand has been through a parrotfish. Behind its beak is a second set of teeth in the throat that grinds up the coral. At night it secretes a mucus cocoon and sleeps inside it, apparently masking its scent from predators and parasites. Many change sex from female to male, altering colour so completely they were once thought to be different species.
What I learned
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