Blue-green Chromis

About

The blue-green puller (Chromis viridis) is one of the more reliably peaceful fish you can add to a reef system, which makes it stand out from most of its damselfish relatives. In the wild it ranges across an enormous sweep of the Indo-Pacific, from the east coast of Africa all the way out to the remote Tuamotu Archipelago, where it forms large, hovering aggregations above branching Acropora coral heads in sheltered lagoons and reef flats. The coloration is soft and iridescent, a pale blue-green that shifts subtly depending on the light, and a school of them moving together in open water has a distinctly natural, reef-like feel. In the aquarium this is a shoaling species, and it genuinely does better in groups; odd-numbered groups of five or more tend to settle in more smoothly than pairs or trios. Keepers sometimes use them as dither fish, since their confident presence in the water column can coax shyer tankmates out of hiding. They feed on phytoplankton in the wild and adapt well to a varied prepared diet in captivity. Breeding behavior is interesting, males construct and guard nests, fanning eggs with their tails, though getting them to spawn successfully in a home system takes some effort. A solid choice for a community reef, provided the tank has enough open water for the group to move freely.