Despite the fact that Parrotfish are often seen chomping away on coral, they are primarily vegetarians or herbivores. They use their large parrot-like mouths and fused teeth to scrape away at coraline algae, seaweed and coral. Once this material enters their throat, it is pulverized by bony plates that act as a second set of teeth. What comes out the other end is approximately 70% sand. Uhu (the common Hawaiian name for Parrotfish are believed to be able to produce several hundred pounds of sand per fish, per year.
On Maui, Uhu are a prized eating fish. Unfortunately, overfishing has contributed to the demise of many of the unprotected reefs. Without healthy populations of parrotfish and other herbivores to keep the reefs clean of seaweed and algae, the coral slowly suffocates and dies. The Spectacled Parrotfish captured in the video below was videotaped for nearly a minute. In that time, he scraped or bit into the coral
