Picky Parrotfish By: Evan, Brynn, and Cody

Question

Do different species of parrotfish have a preference of habitat between the coral reef and sea grass? We are particularly interested in the preferences of Yellowtail Parrotfish, Stoplight Parrotfish, and Red Band Parrotfish.

Hypothesis

We hypothesize that the Stoplight Parrotfish will prefer the coral reef habitat, the Red Band Parrotfish will prefer the coral reef habitat as well, and the Yellowtail Parrotfish will prefer the sea grass habitat.

Method

As a group, we did a 15 minute timed swim in each habitat. During the timed swims we divided up tasks between each individual to ensure more accurate results. Between the three of us, we had two people with underwater slates tallying each species of parrotfish as we came across them. The third member of our party was an observer that helped spot the parrotfish due to a lack of slates. We compared results after to determine the right amount of parrotfish that we spotted. 

Results

After our two 15 minute snorkels we had some outstanding results. In the coral reef habitat we came across an interesting array of parrotfish. We saw 23 Stoplight Parrotfish, 10 Red Band Parrotfish, and absolutely zero Yellowtail Parrotfish. In the sea grass habitat we were shocked by the results. We were swimming in the grass for 5 minutes without seeing a single parrotfish. All of a sudden we ran into a school of over 100 parrotfish. It was a mix of Stoplight Parrotfish and Yellowtail Parrotfish, although the Yellowtail Parrotfish was the most abundant. We ran into another mixed school of parrotfish in lesser size. In total we accounted 125 Yellowtail Parrotfish and 18 Stoplight Parrotfish.

Conclusion

We both accept and reject our hypothesis. We accept our hypothesis in the fact that the Red Band Parrotfish was found in the coral reef habitat, and the Yellowtail Parrotfish was found in the sea grass habitat. We reject our hypothesis in the fact that the Stoplight Parrotfish was found in both habitats, not just the coral reef habitat. We found that in general, Stoplight Parrotfish don't have a preferable habitat. They cross over between the two. Yellowtail Parrotfish prefer the sea grass habitat to the coral reef. Red Band Parrotfish prefer the coral reef to the sea grass.

Discussion 

We had a couple limitations in or experiment. The first being our time limit. We had just 15 minutes to collect our data. The second being the fact that fish move around a lot. There was the possibility that we could have recounted the fish as well. The third was that ocean swells during our experiment prevented us from conducting our survey out in the deeper waters of the reef. To improve our experiment we could change a few things. We could change our survey times to one hour to get the best possible results and we would do 10 surveys. With these changes the experiment would have more accurate data to represent the trends, but the trends would still be the same.