Parrot Fish – Koh Tao’s Underwater Cleaner & Reef Gardener 

Parrot Fish aren’t named after parrots only because of their striking, rainbow-like colors, although their vibrant shades of pink, green, yellow, and blue definitely make them stand out. Their name also comes from their beak-shaped mouths, which resemble a parrot’s beak and are used to scrape algae from coral. Even the way they move adds to the resemblance, “flapping” their pectoral fins in a gentle, wing-like motion as they glide through the water. All of these features make parrotfish easy to spot when you’re scuba diving, freediving, or snorkeling around Koh Tao. 

On Koh Tao, parrotfish are one of the most common and important fish on the reef. They play a key role in keeping the coral ecosystem healthy. Using their strong, beak-shaped mouths, parrotfish scrape away tiny algae that grow on rocks and dead coral. This helps prevent algae from spreading too much, gives baby corals clean places to grow, and keeps the reef’s nutrients in balance.

In some parts of the world, larger parrotfish even bite small pieces of coral as they feed. While this might sound harmful, it actually helps create new white sand. The coral they eat is broken down in their stomach and released as fine sand, the same soft sand you walk on at Koh Tao beaches. Fun fact: A single large parrotfish can produce hundreds of kilograms of sand per year!