Black Tailed Blue Damsel/Chromis

[Scottkelly911]

I'm having trouble finding anything out about this fish. Today I was at my LFS and saw a tank full of what was labeled as Solomon Island Blue Damsels. They look similar to a yellow tailed Blue Damsel but have black tails instead of yellow and black along the trailing edges of the dorsal and anal fin. I was told they're actually Chromis and not nearly as agressive as a traditional Damsel such as the Yellow tailed variety. These little fish were beautiful and I really would like to try maybe 3 of them, but I don't want to mess with the husbandry of my clowns (black saddleback pair and 1 True Perc) and 5 Blue/Green Chromis. I know the ramifications of putting a normal Damsel into my tank and won't get these little guys if their disposition is similar to other damsels. I watched them in the tank with about 10-15 or so and there was no aggression toward one another. Then went to the Yellow tailed damsel tank (same size tank) with about the same numbers and ofcourse being the evil little $h|ts they are, they were chasing each other all over the place.Anyone have any info on these little guys?

[ILoveReefer]

Is this the fish your pet store is selling. checkout this link.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...cfm?pCatId=111

[ILoveReefer]

or it may also be a blue reef chromis. metallic blue with a black line mid part of head all the way to the tail. and a small black line that on the bottom of his black tail. sorry no pics

[Scottkelly911]

It wasn't either of those. I've been a reefer for about 15 years or so, and used to work in the industry at FlyingFish.com before it was bought out, I also used to work for a wholesaler and this is the first time I've seen this particular Damsel/Chromis in the trade. Like I described before, it looks very much similar to a Yellow Tailed Damsel, however has a black tail instead of yellow and also has black on the trailing edges of the dorsal and anal fin. Thanks for trying though, hopefully someone else knows what they are. Here is the info I've been able to find on it. I believe it's Chrysiptera springeri, the Springer's Damsel. Some of the variations are very pretty fish. Some of the ones I've found when searching the scientific name are much different, probably a color morph through different aggregations. Here's a pic of the one that looks like the ones in the store that I found, though the one in this pic has very little black on it like the ones in the store. Unfortuntely the one in this pic just looks like an ordinary blue damsel, but the ones in the store have completely black tails, and anal fins and the dorsal fin has quite a bit of black, but some of them were almost transparent where the black was on the dorsal.

[toonces]

I'm at work right now so can't help you. However, I have a couple of books at home and I'll take a look to see if I can find it in there when I get done work.

Having said that, I'd probably give it a try. I guess it depends on how much you have invested in the tank in case it doesn't work out. In my experience, the Chrysiptera damsels are fairly benign, and I'm a sucker for rare damsels.