How to Identify a Queen Parrotfish

Video Transcript

"The marine organism we're going to identify now is the Queen Parrotfish. The Queen Parrotfish is probably one of the easiest Parrotfish species to identify. As far as I can find, it only exists in two color phases. The initial phase is quite unique, with fishes mostly gray with a wide horizontal white ban running down the mid body line. The terminal phase adult is mostly green to blue green with few other markings. Queen Parrotfish may have a bit of yellow around the mouth, but the mouth area is mostly covered with very dramatic blue and or green markings. They also have a light bar on their pectoral fin. Queen Parrotfish are a moderately size Parrotfish. The usual size for the gray and white initial phase animal is between two and ten inches with a maximum reported size of twelve inches. The terminal phase male is usually between twelve to sixteen inches in length, with a maximum reported size of two feet. Queen Parrotfish can be commonly found throughout the tropical US and the Carribean. They tend to stay in water of depths between ten and eighty feet which means they can be enjoyed by snorkelers and scuba divers alike. You will often see one terminal phase fish with several initial phase fish, most of which are probably females. They rarely stray far above the reef. Queen Parrotfish tend to be constantly moving. The primary exception is at night when they hide from predators by excreting a mucus cocoon around their body which hides their scent and allows them to sleep peacefully throughout the night. If you are a scuba diver on a night dive and discover a sleeping Parrotfish in its protective cocoon, don't startle it, as it will break out of the cocoon and swim away which means it either has to excrete another cocoon, which some believe they can only do once a day, or be easy prey for some predator. Queen Parrotfish feed on algae they scrap from rocks and dead coral. Their teeth, both upper and lower, are fused in to clearly visible scrappers that they use to remove the algae. The scraping noise made by feeding Parrotfish can be easily heard by scuba divers. Queen Parrotfish are protogynous hermaphrodites. This means that all fish start out life as females and turn in to males as they mature and reach a size of about ten in length. Males gather a permanent harem of females and spawn with several from the harem every day during the breeding season. Eggs are fertilized externally and allowed to drift with the currents until they hatch. That's the Queen Parrotfish."