Once a coral is large enough - at least five polyp tiles - it becomes big enough for the parrotfish to eat. In action 1, at the beginning of a player's turn, a player's parrotfish may eat one coral which is at least five polyps large and which is protected by that player's shrimp. A parrotfish will not eat a coral which is protected by another player's shrimp or which is not protected.

When a parrotfish eats a coral, the first four polyp tiles from the coral are placed back into the polyp tile bag. Shake the bag so that these tiles are mixed in with the other tiles in the bag. The additional tile(s) are placed into the player's parrotfish. The polyp tiles in a player's parrotfish will give rise to that player's score at the end of the game. (See also the rules for the 'End of the game' below, when five polyp tiles are placed back into the bag, not four.)

If the coral is the first coral to be eaten by the player's parrotfish, then the shrimp which is guarding the coral and which is also consumed is placed on one of the shrimp spaces on the open-sea board. If the player has already eaten a coral and has therefore already placed a shrimp on the open-sea board, then the shrimp just eaten is placed inside the parrotfish along with the polyp tiles. Placing a shrimp on the open-sea board identifies that that player is now able to place alga cylinders onto the coral tiles.

Hint: Be careful to monitor how many shrimps your opponents' parrotfish have eaten in order that you can anticipate when the game may end. For example, if one player's parrotfish has already eaten two shrimps, then the game could be over in just another two turns.

If a player has already performed an action during that turn, then their parrotfish cannot subsequently eat a coral during that same turn. The player must wait until their next turn before they can eat the coral.

A player is allowed to look into his own parrotfish at any time to see the type of polyp tiles that the parrotfish has already consumed. Players are not allowed to look into other players' parrotfish.