{"id":35967,"date":"2013-05-05T23:15:43","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T03:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=35967"},"modified":"2013-05-05T23:15:43","modified_gmt":"2013-05-06T03:15:43","slug":"scarus-coeruleus-blue-parrotfish-facts-and-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/scarus-coeruleus-blue-parrotfish-facts-and-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Scarus Coeruleus — Blue Parrotfish Facts And Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blue Parrotfish — Scarus coeruleus<\/em> — is an almost completely bright-blue species of parrot fish (Scarus<\/em>). They are the only uniformly blue species of fish currently known of. They are also known as blue kwabs, bluemen, blue parrots, and kwabs.<\/p>\n

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Image Credit: Blue Parrotfish Face<\/a> via Flickr CC<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The name “parrotfish” refers to the “beak-like” jaws and fused teeth of the species in the genus. These teeth are used to scrape algae off of rocks and corals. Strangely, they also possess what are known as Pharyngeal teeth<\/em>, which are essentially just teeth in the throat. Parrot fishes use these teeth to grind rocks the rocks\/corals that they ingest into sand, which is then eliminated, creating new sand. This actually leads to the formation of small islands and sandy beaches in the Caribbean. Individual parrot fishes can produce as much as 200 lbs of sand a year.<\/p>\n