Scarus iseri
Striped Parrotfish
Collection Details
Specimens
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Scaridae (Parrotfishes)
Scarus
Scarus iseri (Striped Parrotfish)
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
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Characters
Six scales in series below eye; jaw teeth fused to form beaklike plates; dorsal and ventral profiles rounded; snout moderately steep in small specimens, slightly steeper in large; nares close set; anterior naris with short flap on posterior margin; tooth plate of upper jaw slightly overlaps lower jaw; outer gill rakers 40-51, inner 62-78; head length 34%-35% SL, snout length 11%-12% SL, eye diameter about 6% SL, upper jaw length 8%-11% SL, pectoral fin length 21%-24% SL, body depth 34%-38% SL; pectoral fin with 13 or 14 (usually 14) rays; caudal fin truncate to slightly convex; body, much of head, and bases of dorsal, anal, and caudal fins scaled; cheek with three rows of scales (5-7 in uppermost row, 1-5 in lowermost); predorsal midrow scales 7 or (rarely) 8
Whitish with three dark brown stripes: from nape to caudal peduncle, from eye or margin of operculum to caudal peduncle, and from pectoral fin base to caudal peduncle; stripes indistinct on head; upper part of snout yellowish; large terminal males blue green to orange with green stripe on head below eye and pink below stripe; median fins orange with blue green reticulations or spots and blue medial and distal borders; caudal fin orange with blue green upper and lower margins
Distribution
Western Atlantic from southern Florida and Bermuda to Brazil, including eastern and southern Gulf of Mexico, Bahamas, and Antilles
In the Gulf of Mexico, occurs off southwestern coast of Florida and Veracruz
Habitat Associations
Coral reefs in shallow water
Biology
Benthic algae
Maximum known size 270 mm TL
Found over shallow, clear waters, generally over Thalassia beds (Ref. 13628). Also found rocky or coral areas (Ref. 13628). A schooling species. Feeds on plants. A protogynous hermaphrodite (Ref. 55367). Super males spawn individually with striped females, while sexually mature males in the striped phase spawn in aggregation.
Reproductive mode: protogyny; fertilization: external; mating system: polygyny; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none. Diandric. Length at sex change = 9.6 cm TL (Ref. 55367). Forms harem groups composed of a single male and several smaller females (Ref. 55367).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2009-09-17. Resilience: High (Preliminary K or Fecundity).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: minor commercial; aquarium: commercial.
References
Longley and Hildebrand 1941
Schultz 1958a
Böhlke and Chaplin 1968
Randall 1968a
Randall 1996
Sonnier et al. 1976
Colin 1978
Hastings 1979
Robins and Ray 1986
Boschung 1992
Randall and Nelson 1979
Castro-Aguirre and Márquez-Espinoza 1981
Smith 1997
Smith-Vaniz et al. 1999
Westneat 2002b
Randall, J.E. (1967) Food habits of reef fishes of the West Indies. Stud. Trop. Oceanogr. Miami 5:665-847.
Böhlke, J.E. and C.C.G. Chaplin (1993) Fishes of the Bahamas and adjacent tropical waters. 2nd edition. University of Texas Press, Austin.
Robins, C.R. and G.C. Ray (1986) A field guide to Atlantic coast fishes of North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, U.S.A. 354 p.
Lieske, E. and R. Myers (1994) Collins Pocket Guide. Coral reef fishes. Indo-Pacific & Caribbean including the Red Sea. Haper Collins Publishers, 400 p.
Randall, J.E. (1996) Caribbean reef fishes. Third Edition - revised and enlarged. T.F.H. Publications, Inc. Ltd., Hong Kong. 3nd ed. 368 p.
Cervigón, F. (1994) Los peces marinos de Venezuela. Volume 3. Fundación Científica Los Roques, Caracas,Venezuela. 295 p.
Smith, C.L. (1997) National Audubon Society field guide to tropical marine fishes of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, the Bahamas, and Bermuda. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York. 720 p.
Choat, J.H. and D.R. Robertson (1975) Protogynous hermaphroditism in fishes of the family Scaridae. p. 263-283. In R. Reinboth (ed.) Intersexuality in the animal kingdom. Springer, Heidelberg.
Allsop, D.J. and S.A. West (2003) Constant relative age and size at sex change for sequentially hermaphroditic fish. J. Evol. Biol. 16(2003):921-929.
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