Page 131 - Caribbean Reef Life Demo

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arrot sh are some of the most colorful and iconic sh species in the Caribbean. Their name comes from a set of fused front teeth, used for scraping algae from the reef. They go through radical changes as they grow. Most parrot sh are female, in a drab initial color stage, and they live in tight social groups called harems. Each harem is controlled by a single dominant male. This is the terminal stage, when a parrot sh becomes the most vibrantly colored and active. If the male dies, the strongest female can turn into a male and take over the harem. Males can sometimes even mimic females to hide and mate in neighboring harems.
arrot sh are the largest and some of the most important herbivores in a reef ecosystem, keeping levels of algae in check. As they feed on the marine plants covering the reef, some coral gets scraped off and eaten too. p to 75 of a parrot sh’s gut contents is inorganic material. After the plant nutrients are digested out of this mixture, the rest is expelled as a ne sand. arrot shes add many tons of sand to a reef every year. Most of the white sandy beaches so popular in the Caribbean are actually made up of material that has already passed through a parrot sh.