Purple Chromis

About

The purple reeffish (Chromis scotti) is a small damselfish from the Western Atlantic, ranging from southern Florida and the Caribbean down to northern Brazil, where it tends to be more plentiful along continental coastlines. In the wild it favors the steep outer faces of reefs and deeper patch reefs, which gives you a sense of its preference for calmer, less turbulent conditions. Coloration runs toward a soft, dusty violet that deepens with age, making it fairly easy to distinguish from other chromis species once you know what to look for. Behaviorally it lives up to its peaceful reputation, a genuine rarity in the damselfish family, and it gets along well in community reef setups without the territorial aggression that plagues so many of its relatives. Breeding behavior is worth knowing about: pairs form distinct bonds, and the male takes on egg-guarding and fanning duties after the eggs are deposited and stuck to a hard surface. That parental care is a nice reminder that there's more going on with these fish than their modest size suggests. At two to four inches fully grown, this is a manageable species that a newer reef keeper can reasonably succeed with, provided the tank is mature and suitably sized.