Ugly fish with ugly teeth

[dfx]

Seen on Curacao. We were told it's some kind of parrotfish, but what exactly?

 

[dumpsterDiver]

It is not a parrot fish and it is not ugly at all..

 

[redacted]

Whitespotted filefish

 

[Steve_C]

They come in two colors. That one and a more greenish one. You often see them in pairs, one of each color. See them in the Keys a lot.

 

[knotical]

AKA
Cantherhines macrocerus

Frequently when in pairs one has no spots and is mostly orange.

 

[dfx]

Thanks! Didn't think it looked like a parrotfish.

 

[drrich2]

They can 'turn on' or turn off the white spots very fast; interesting to see them do it.

That's only one kind of filefish; you may have seen scrawled filefish, too. There are others, but those are the 2 I notice the most of.

Richard.

 

[KeithG]

Seen on Curacao. We were told it's some kind of parrotfish, but what exactly?

Your shot has about half of the spots turned on.
steve_c shot shows all of the spots turned on.
with the spots off, they look very orange (belly and back).
as drrich2 indicated they can turn the spots on and off very quickly. Within a few seconds.

 

[koozemani]

They can 'turn on' or turn off the white spots very fast; interesting to see them do it.

That's only one kind of filefish; you may have seen scrawled filefish, too. There are others, but those are the 2 I notice the most of.

Richard.

Scrawled version

 

[Steve_C]

In NC we see a lot of plain head (sp?) and some orange filefish. Did not know the white spot could turn spots off and on.