Blue Green Chromis

Looks how to spot one

Small, oval, laterally compressed damselfish with a forked tail

A slim, oval little reef fish with a deeply forked tail. Its scales shimmer in a soft apple-green that shifts to pale blue as the light catches it, so a school seems to change colour as it turns. The look is simple and even from nose to tail, which makes a moving group read like one glittering cloud.23

Personality what they are like

A calm, sociable fish that is happiest in company. It gets along well with other peaceful reef fish and leaves corals and invertebrates alone, spending its day hovering and darting together with its group in open water.32

Daily activity how busy a day looks

An active daytime swimmer that spends most of its time in the middle and upper water column, so open swimming space above the rockwork suits it well.13

Grooming and care the hands-on bits

Needs a stable, well-kept marine (saltwater) aquarium. Steady routine care such as regular partial water changes and frequent small meals suits it best; an automatic feeder is a handy way to keep feeding regular.3

Home where they are happiest

A saltwater reef or fish-only aquarium with branching rock or coral to retreat into and plenty of open water above. A single fish can live in about 38 L, while a school needs roughly 110 L or more. In the wild it lives over thickets of branching Acropora coral in sheltered lagoons and reef flats, at about 1 to 20 m depth.215

Food basics what goes in the bowl

A plankton eater. In nature it picks tiny drifting food from the water, including phytoplankton, small crustaceans such as copepods and amphipods, algae and fish eggs. In an aquarium, offer small, varied marine foods several times a day rather than one large meal.123

Company who they like around

A shoaling fish that should be kept in a group; aquarists commonly keep small odd-numbered groups. Best housed with other peaceful species and not with large fish-eating predators such as groupers, lionfish or eels.23

The story where it all began

The French naturalist Georges Cuvier gave this damselfish its scientific name in 1830, choosing viridis, the Latin word for green. It belongs to a small group of very similar green chromis species, and a close relative, Chromis atripectoralis, is often sold under the same name; the two are told apart mainly by a dark spot at the base of the pectoral fin, which the blue green chromis usually lacks. Thanks to its gentle nature and low price it became a mainstay of reef aquariums, and the green chromis group was described in 2013 as the most collected species for the marine hobby. For a long time nearly all were wild caught. Small-scale breeding successes came first from researchers, and in early 2013 the Rising Tide breeding team announced that it had raised a few dozen juveniles in closed culture, using eggs spawned at SeaWorld Orlando.1256

Recognised by the official bits

IUCN Red List

Assessed as Least Concern (September 2021)1

Georges Cuvier

Species scientifically described by Cuvier in 1830; family Pomacentridae (damselfishes)1

Popularity In 2013 the green chromis species group was described as the number one species collected for the marine aquarium hobby.