Unlike their brethren, parrotfish, part of the Scaridae family of fish, spend most of their time close to the coral reef structure. These very large parrotfish will often be feeding out in the sand flats scoping up mouthfuls of sand, scouring the particles for algae and small crustaceans. These are large mostly solitary parrotfish. I caught this one feeding on the sand off a coral reef in John Pennekamp coral reef state park off Key Largo.

While parrotfish are common worldwide, these parrotfish inhabit the Western Atlantic, Brazil, Bahamas, Bermuda and the West Indies. The scientific name for the blue parrotfish is Scarus coeruleus.

© Copyright Vince Capone 2013