Blue-barred parrotfish

Scarus ghobban, also known as the blue-barred parrotfish, blue trim parrotfish, cream parrotfish, globe-headed parrotfish, green blotched parrotfish, yellow scale parrotfish, and bluechin parrotfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish in the family Scaridae.

Habitat

Scarus ghobban occurs in places with sandy bottoms and in areas with seagrass. It is also known to live in marginal reefs and in deeper waters.

Distribution

Scarus ghobban is widespread throughout the Indo-Pacific, known from East Africa to Indonesia. It is also present in the Eastern Pacific, occurring in the Galápagos Islands as well as Japan, south to Australia and east to French Polynesia. Recently recorded in 2001 for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel, following an entry via the Suez Canal, it is now expanding northward in Levantine waters where it remains rare.

Like other reef fish with a pelagic larval phase, regional currents facilitate high levels of gene flow, which in turn create high genetic diversity among the species.