--- title: Pomacentridae (Pomacentridae) scientific_name: Pomacentridae common_name: Pomacentridae rank: Family published: 2024-11-19T18:41:51.573Z updated: 2026-08-23T21:28:59.923Z tags: Pomacentridae, Pomacentridae, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae --- # Pomacentridae (*Pomacentridae*) ## Quick facts - **Rank:** Family - **Scientific name:** Pomacentridae - **Body shape:** Oval - Egg-shaped body, deeper than it is thick - damselfishes, surgeonfishes. - **Species listed here:** 34 ## How to recognise this group - small, oval body, typically 5-15 cm long - active, territorial on specific reef patches - single dorsal fin running most of the back - forked or notched tail fin - bold single-colour bodies or sharply contrasting bands Some damselfish are farmers, and they mean it. A gregory or a jewel damsel holds a patch of dead coral rock about a meter across, and it does not simply feed there, it weeds: the algae it does not want are bitten off and carried out of the plot, and the ones it does want are left to grow into a dense turf. In some gardens the crop is a red alga that is now found almost nowhere except inside them, kept going by the fish that eats it. Where the plot needs to be bigger, the farmer kills coral to make room, biting the polyps off in a line along the edge until the bare skeleton is ready for turf to move in. Then it defends the whole thing against everything: other damselfish, wrasses, a mob of surgeonfish passing through, and you. Being charged in the mask by a brown fish the length of your finger is a standard Red Sea experience, and the fish is not confused about what it is doing. It is defending a food supply that took it months to build, against an animal a thousand times its size, and it usually wins, because you move on. The other half of the family points the opposite way. Chromis hang in clouds above the coral heads, facing into the current and picking plankton out of it one item at a time, then drop into the branches at dusk; between them they work as a conveyor, moving open-water food onto the reef and leaving it there. Farmer and plankton-picker share one small oddity: a damselfish has a single nostril on each side of the snout, where nearly every other bony fish has two. Thirty-five species are listed here, which makes them the most numerous fish on a Red Sea reef and the ones divers look at least. The anemonefishes belong to this family too, and are covered separately. ## Species (34) - [Arabian Chromis (Chromis flavaxilla)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/arabian-chromis) - [Black Damselfish (Neoglyphidodon melas)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/black-damselfish) - [Blackbarred Damselfish (Amblypomacentrus annulatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/blackbarred-damselfish) - [Blackbordered Dascyllus (Dascyllus marginatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/blackbordered-dascyllus) - [Blackspot Sergeant (Abudefduf sordidus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/blackspot-sergeant) - [Bluegreen Chromis (Chromis viridis)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/bluegreen-chromis) - [Bluntsnout Gregory (Stegastes punctatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/bluntsnout-gregory) - [Chocolatedip Chromis (Pycnochromis dimidiatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/chocolatedip-chromis) - [Dark Damselfish (Pomacentrus aquilus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/dark-damselfish) - [Dusky Gregory (Stegastes nigricans)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/dusky-gregory) - [Duskytail Chromis (Chromis pelloura)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/duskytail-chromis) - [Half-and-half Chromis (Pycnochromis iomelas)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/half-and-half-chromis) - [Humbug Dascyllus (Dascyllus aruanus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/humbug-dascyllus) - [Indian Ocean Humbug (Dascyllus abudafur)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/indian-ocean-humbug) - [Indo-Pacific Sergeant (Abudefduf vaigiensis)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/indo-pacific-sergeant) - [Jewel Damselfish (Stegastes lacrymatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/jewel-damselfish) - [Jordan’s Damselfish (Teixeirichthys jordani)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/jordans-damselfish) - [Miry’s Damselfish (Neopomacentrus miryae)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/mirys-damselfish) - [Onespot Damselfish (Chrysiptera unimaculata)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/onespot-damselfish) - [Pale Damselfish (Amblyglyphidodon indicus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/pale-damselfish) - [Regal Damselfish (Neopomacentrus cyanomos)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/regal-damselfish) - [Reticulated Damselfish (Pomacentrus trichourus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/reticulated-damselfish) - [Scissortail Sergeant (Abudefduf sexfasciatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/scissortail-sergeant) - [Slender Damselfish (Pomacentrus leptus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/slender-damselfish) - [Sulphur Damselfish (Pomacentrus sulfureus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/sulphur-damselfish) - [Threeline Damselfish (Pomacentrus trilineatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/threeline-damselfish) - [Threespot Dascyllus (Dascyllus trimaculatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/threespot-dascyllus) - [Triplespot Chromis (Chromis trialpha)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/triplespot-chromis) - [Weber's Chromis (Chromis weberi)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/webers-chromis) - [Whitebar Damselfish (Plectroglyphidodon leucozona)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/whitebar-damselfish) - [Whitetail Damselfish (Pomacentrus albicaudatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/whitetail-damselfish) - [Yellow-Edge Chromis (Chromis pembae)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/yellow-edge-chromis) - [Yellow-side Damselfish (Amblyglyphidodon flavilatus)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/yellow-side-damselfish) - [Yellowtail Damselfish (Neopomacentrus flavicauda)](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/yellowtail-damselfish) --- *Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae)* *Updated: August 23, 2026*