The largest herbivorous fish on an Atlantic reef, orange-brown with a green rear half. Its juveniles need mangroves, so it has disappeared where the mangroves have been cleared.
To 120 cm, which makes it the largest plant-eating fish in the Atlantic and the largest parrotfish in the Caribbean. Commonly 70 cm. Heavy-bodied and unmistakable on size alone: dull orange-brown to bronze on the head and front body, grading to green behind, with dull orange fins carrying tongues of green, blue margins to the median fins, and a blue-green beak. Unusually for a parrotfish there is no obvious colour difference between the phases, so initial and terminal fish look broadly alike.
The midnight parrotfish is uniformly dark blue-black with bright blue patches, and the blue parrotfish is uniformly blue with a blunt forehead. Neither has the orange-in-front, green-behind division.
The important thing about this fish is where its young live. Juveniles are mangrove animals, and the connection is not optional: where Caribbean mangroves have been cleared, the species has disappeared from the reefs next door even where the reef itself is undamaged. It is the standard example of reef and mangrove being one system. Adults move onto the reef and graze between 3 and 25 m.
It is listed as near threatened, and the threat is the loss of a different habitat rather than fishing on the reef. It is now scarce in much of Florida.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.