Description
Blue Chromis, Chromis cyanea, are a common damselfish found throughout South Florida and the Caribbean. Chromis are popular damselfish because they are not aggressive and territorial like many of the other damselfish found throughout the Caribbean (and world for that matter). When they are small they are often found in large schools hovering around a favorite rock or coral head, often mixed in with some of the other chromis species. As they get bigger they tend to wander away from the school more, and eventually seek mates and lay eggs in the sand. They are somewhat seasonal, and like many of the smaller fish I suspect that they don’t live much more than a year or two in the wild.
Chromis feed on plankton in the wild so they are easy to keep in an aquarium and don’t have any special dietary needs other than a good quality marine food. We feed them small pellets and they gobble them up, but they will also eat flake food and frozen foods. They don’t pick at any corals or invertebrates, so they are one of the more reef safe fish we sell. They also don’t get real big, maybe 3′ max, so they are suitable for most small to mid sized reef tanks, or for fish only tanks.
Small: ~0.75 to 1.5 inches
Medium: ~1.5 to 2 inches
Lg: ~2 to 3 inches
Please Note: Any new fish purchased from us or from a local pet store should to be quarantined. All fish from anywhere in the wild can be possible carriers of bacteria and protozoa that can lead to an infection in your system, so we always recommend that you use some sort of quarantine system prior to adding them to your system. If you have a fish only system and can medicate the whole system, you may not need a separate quarantine tank. If you have a reef system that cannot be medicated, a good ultraviolet sterilization system should prevent any kind of disease outbreak. We medicate our system for bacterial infections and protozoans, but because we don’t always hold our fish for long periods of time, there is no way to be sure all the protozoan cysts have been killed. A little bit of prevention will save you lots of trouble down the line.