Is that a Parrotfish on my header?

Yes, I've switched out my header again. Just wasn't feeling the love with the spotted moray eel and needed a "lighter" feeling to the header, something more welcoming. What better way to welcome visitors then the sweet and funny face of a Parrot Fish. They have powerful jaws and teeth that look like the beak of a parrot. I adore these goofy looking, brilliant colored species with their parrot shaped beaks that give you the appearance of them grinning right at you.

To me they are the closest thing to swimming cartoons with their bright colors and funny faces. They are the most common and most colorful of species living on coral reefs around the world. All sizes and colors (I have seem some as big as a 50 pound dog), friendly and unafraid of divers, they will often follow you as you move around in their world. (photos enlarge when you click on them.)

Stoplight Parrotfish - male. Named for the brilliant yellow stoplight on its tail (pectoral fin).

A sex changing fish, the colors of the Stoplight parrotfish in the initial phase (below) when it could be either a male or female are dramatically different from when it is in the terminal phase (above) sporting brilliant colors when it is definitely a male.

Stoplight Parrot Fish either male or female in initial phase.

Princess Parrotfish with a cheeky grin. Always a brilliant blue and the face of my latest header.

Bi-color Parrotfish - male How can you not be passionate about this species with so many brilliant colors to choose from?

The parrotfish diet is primarily algae extracted from chunks of coral ripped from a reef. You can actually "hear" them crunching the coral while swimming with them. These coral crunchers pulverize the coral with the grinding teeth in their throat and most of the sand in their region is actually the ground up and undigested coral they excrete.

Wishing you a colorful day and thanks for stopping by. Sea Witch