Blue-green chromis

Chromis viridis

Glimmering in apple-green and pale turquoise hues, the blue-green chromis forms breathtaking living canopies above shallow coral gardens across the Indo-Pacific. Its slender, compressed oval form reflects sunlight with an iridescent pearlescent sheen that shifts dynamically between sky-blue and emerald depending on the angle of view. Tail lobes taper into fine dark-tipped tips, enhancing its delicate silhouette. Extending from the Red Sea and East Africa across Micronesia to the Tuamotu Archipelago, this peaceful damselfish inhabits protected lagoons and semi-exposed reef flats between one and twelve meters depth. Dense schools numbering in the hundreds or thousands hover synchronously just above branching Acropora staghorn thickets, plucking pelagic copepods and tiny zooplankton carried on reef currents. When shadowed by predatory jacks or grouper, the entire swarm dives instantaneously into the narrow recesses of the coral labyrinth for communal safety. Males establish discrete nesting plots on rubble, enticing multiple females to spawn, and diligently fan the adhesive egg clutches until hatching. Maximum total length reaches ten centimetres.

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