Colorful coral cleaner parrotfish
© Georgette Douwma/Stone/Getty Images
A colorful coral cleaner
It can't squawk a greeting like its avian namesake, but this parrotfish sure seems to be saying hello. Like parrots, parrotfish depend on their powerful beaks to feed. While parrots use theirs as nutcrackers, parrotfish use their tooth-lined beaks to scrape seaweed and sponges from hard corals. These deep cleans are essential to coral reef health, making parrotfish a keystone species in the Great Barrier Reef and other threatened locales.
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