Beautiful Parrotfish by Day, Reclusive Slime-bag by Night
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We're here because your heightened awareness deserves heightened entertainment. The Last Show with David Cooper. We are here to discuss the delightful queen parrotfish, a beautiful and friendly reef fish with Dr. Cliff Redford. It is vet talk. It is pet talk. Check out Cliff's podcast, Vet Life, available wherever podcasts are streamed, downloaded, whatever. Cliff, welcome to the show. Thank you, as always. Let's talk about this adorable fish, this beautiful fish.
This gorgeous parrotfish. So they live in the Caribbean waters.
What makes the queen parrotfish unique during the day?
They're huge. They're like the size of a watermelon. And they are divers' fantasy fish because they're so beautiful, so colorful. They're called the Scarus vetula is their genus and species. Apparently, they have a bit of a slimy nightlife.
Are they the Nemo fish or they're just close? They just hang out with fish that are like the Nemo fish and they kind of have that vibe.
They're very much like the Nemo fish, but the Nemo fish is very, very tiny. No, these guys are huge. And so not in Nemo at all. I mean, I'm sure they passed off, you know, before, spoiler alert, the barracuda ate all the eggs except for the one.
I walked in there and I'm like, hey, Nemo's on the screen. I found him. No big deal. He's right there. Yeah. Done. I'm going home. It's like that movie, We Bought a Zoo. I'm like waiting halfway through the movie and then they buy the zoo. I'm like, wow, I didn't see that one coming.
There you go. It's all in the title, David. It's all in the title. Sometimes it's got to be very, very clear. Are you telling me the Hail Mary movie is not about football?
No, it is. It is. Well, it's about a rock. It's about the rock. Okay, never mind. Back on. Okay, so this gorgeous reef-dwelling fish that divers love during the daytime is a friendly wonder. What happens at night?
So at night, apparently, not apparently, at night, it goes down and I guess it sleeps, it naps, it rests down in these crevices. And it has these glands just behind its gills. and it produces mucus, as do most glands. And this mucus, it takes about 30 minutes, and the parrotfish will build a giant mucus slime ball bubble that it sleeps in. It's like a pillow for your entire body.
I'm reading an article about this as you speak about it, and one reporter called it a reclusive slime bag by night, which I love. Exactly. Honestly, relatable.
That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. So, but the thing is, is like everything in nature, there's purpose, right? This mucus has antibiotic properties. It's the next treatment for the zombie plague, I think. So, it covers himself in this mucus and... You know, any sort of pathogen, any sort of bacteria, it helps kill it. It helps keep them healthy, as mucus does. It blocks blood-sucking parasites from getting at the fish while it's sleeping. Do fish sleep or do they just kind of have a period of low activity? I mean, what is sleep, really? It's just your brain's kind of half sleeping, half shutting off. I don't know. We're going to say for the parrotfish, it's sleep, essentially. I know sharks don't really sleep because they need to keep moving because they need to be able to get the water to go through their gills, but...
It also hides their odor and then it acts like an alarm. So if a predator comes up and touches and breaks this mucus bubble, the thing takes off. So it's this amazing, adaptive, arguably gross, but who cares? Maybe that's why they get their beauty sleep and they look so pretty because they use this protective slime all over their body.
If a diver is exploring a reef and rubs up against it, are they going to get mucus, gross fish mucus all over them? I guess so.
I mean, they would. I mean, the reality is most people that are diving in the Caribbean are doing it in the daytime. It's much more pretty. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, night diving's got to have a light. Not as enjoyable. But yeah, they would get it all over themselves, but then it would protect them from blood-sucking parasites and bacteria, so... There you go. Next time I got an infected wound on one of my patients that I can't get to heal, I'm going to go find myself a parrotfish.
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