Chromis chrysura,Stout Chromis
Chromis chrysura was first described by Bliss in 1883.
The genus name Chromis is derived from ancient Greek and means Fish or Perch. The species name Chrysura can be divided into two parts from ancient Greek. Chrysos means ‘gold’ and oura means ‘tail’. Their common name is Stout Chromis.
This species belongs to the family Pomacentridae. This family has about 29 genera and 285 species. The genus Chromis comprises nearly 100 species, making it the largest genus within the family. The Pomacentridae family includes the Clownfish and Damselfish.
Description
With a maximum total length of about 17 centimetres (14 centimetres standard length), this is a relatively large damselfish. Young specimens are blue in colour but soon get the yellow/brown colour on the flank. Adults have a blue head, belly, anal and caudal fin. The flank is yellow/brown in colour with the scales showing a dark accent. On the caudal peduncle, you will find a white spot that can continue into the tail.
Origin
This species has three isolated populations in the wild.
- Southern Japan, Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan
- Coral Sea and New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and Eastern Australia.
- Mauritius and Reunion.
Diet
During the day, they feed on zooplankton over coral and reefs. They form schools for this.
In the aquarium, you can feed them frozen or live brine shrimp, cyclops, krill, Mysis, zooplankton, lobster eggs, flakes, etc.
Video
Author
John de Lange
Copyright images
Francois Libert (Zsispeo) – CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
References