The flamboyant, algae-eating, sand-pooping, Parrotfish is the most important fish in the Bohol Sea or Panglao coral reefs. ... Parrotfish eat algae and dead coral. They spend up to 90% of their day nibbling. In other words, they clean the reef and poop out coral sand. This sand is then ‘transported’ by tidal and wave movement to the shorelines to build beaches or make up for lost sand.
Don’t catch and don’t buy this fish. It is much more important to have it clean up coral reefs and produce coral sand then shoveling it into your stomach! Reefs are already lacking large numbers of these important fishes.
A large species of parrot fish in Hawaii produces up to 800 pounds of coral sand a year and one species in Australia up to one ton of sand a year.
But the most important ‘duty’ of parrot fishes isn’t to produce sand but to clean coral reefs from algae. Algae poses the greatest threat to corals beside global warming. If parrot fishes are reduced in numbers, corals may die because the fish which takes care of eating off algae landed on people’s plates.
The scientific name for parrot fish is Scaridae.
