Sparisoma chrysopterum
Redtail Parrotfish
Collection Details
Specimens
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Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Scaridae (Parrotfishes)
Sparisoma
Sparisoma chrysopterum (Redtail Parrotfish)
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (Carpenter, K.E. (ed.) 2002. The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes. FAO, Rome.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting.
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Synonymy
None / Sparisoma aurofrenatum (Valenciennes, 1840).
Characters
Body moderately deep, depth contained 2.7 to 2.9 times in st andard length.
Interorbital space flat; a membranous flap on anterior nostril with no more than 6 cirri; teeth fused to
form a pair of beak-like plates in each jaw, lower plates slightly overlapping upper when mouth closed;
edges of dental plates sc alloped and outer surface nodular due to shape of individual teeth involved in
fusion to form plates. Gill rakers 15 to 20. Tips of interspinous membranes of dorsal fin with a single
cirrus; caudal fin rounded in young, truncate in intermediate sizes and lunate in adults; pectoral-fin rays 12.
Median predorsal scales 4; 1 row of scales on cheek. Colour: initial-phase fish are olivaceous on the back,
mottled light reddish on the sides and ventr ally, the edges of the scales darker than the centres; head with
sm all pale spots; a prominent blackish spot at upper pectoral-fin base; a large crescentic yellowish area
posteriorly in caudal fin. Terminal males green, the edges of the scales lavender brown, the ventral part
of head and body turquoise; a broad deep blue area beneath pectoral fin; a large deep purple spot on
upper pectoral-fin base; a large crescentic region of red centroposteriorly in caudal fin; dorsal, anal, and pel-
vic fins light red.
Body shape: fusiform / normal. Young adults with black saddle-shaped markings at upper end of pectoral fin base; often vague, pale saddle-shaped area on top of caudal peduncle; and dorsal, anal, and pelvic fins red or orange (Ref. 26938).
Distribution
Sou thern Florida, Bermuda, the
Bahamas, and throughout the Caribbean Sea to
Brazil.
Habitat Associations
Inhab its coral reefs and seagrass beds. When juveniles or initial-phase
adults come to rest on the bottom, they rapidly assume a mottled pattern with which they blend with the sub-
stratum. Other Sparisoma species have this abil-
ity, but none seem to exhibit it as expertly as S. chrysopterum. Feeds by taking single large bites
of plant matter ra ther than rapid series of nips like
most Scarus. This species is caught mainly in
traps and nets, occasion ally by spearing.
Biology
Maximum size to about 45 cm, common to 25 cm.
Occurs in coral reefs and adjacent habitats, the young especially in seagrass beds. Juveniles or primary-phase adults rapidly assume a mottled pattern with which they blend with the substratum when they come to rest on the bottom. Feeds on benthic algae and seagrasses.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none. Although protogyny was propossed for this species (Ref. 27876), probably because testicular characteristics showed a secondary characteristic of sex-changed males, observations of overlapping size ranges of males and females, and males maturing at the same ages and sizes as did females, strongly suggest gonochorism (Ref. 103751).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2009-09-15. Resilience: High (K=0.7).
Commercial or Environmental Importance
Fisheries: minor commercial; aquarium: commercial.
References
Randall, J.E. (1967) Food habits of reef fishes of the West Indies. Stud. Trop. Oceanogr. Miami 5:665-847.
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.
Uyeno, T., K. Matsuura and E. Fujii (eds.) (1983) Fishes trawled off Suriname and French Guiana. Japan Marine Fishery Resource Research Center, Tokyo, Japan. 519 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.
Austin, H. and S. Austin (1971) The feeding habits of some juvenile marine fishes from the mangroves in western Puerto Rico. Caribb. J. Sci. 11(3-4):171-178.
Robertson, D.R., F. Karg, R.L. de Moura, B.C. Victor and G. Bernardi (2006) Mechanisms of speciation and faunal enrichment in Atlantic parrotWshes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution xxx (2006) xxx-xxx
Sadovy de Mitcheson, Y. and M. Liu (2008) Functional hermaphroditism in teleosts. Fish Fish. 9(1):1-43. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-2979.2007.00266.x
Comments On Sparisoma chrysopterum