---
title: Bluegreen Chromis (Chromis viridis)
scientific_name: Chromis viridis
common_name: Bluegreen Chromis
taxon: Pomacentridae
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-30T21:16:06.759Z
updated: 2026-08-15T14:08:07.344Z
tags: Bluegreen Chromis, Chromis viridis, Pomacentridae, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/bluegreen-chromis
---

# Bluegreen Chromis (*Chromis viridis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Pomacentridae (*Pomacentridae*)
- **Size:** up to 10 cm
- **Depth:** 1-20 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Above branching coral heads in shallow lagoons
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- brilliant blue-green, almost luminous in sunlight
- in a cloud of dozens to hundreds above one coral head
- the whole group drops into the coral at once when threatened
- length up to 10 cm

The blue-green cloud over a coral head in shallow water - hundreds of small fish facing into the current, picking plankton out of it one item at a time, and the first thing most people photograph on a reef.

Watch what happens when a shadow passes. The entire cloud drops into the branches of the coral below it simultaneously, the head swallows them, and the water is empty. Half a minute later they filter back out. That coral is not decoration: the fish live above it precisely because it is a shelter they can all fit into at once, and a colony that dies takes its cloud with it.

They feed all day and return the favor. The nutrients the fish release fertilize the coral they shelter in, and colonies with a resident group grow measurably faster than colonies without one.

Males clean a patch of dead coral at the base, court females over it, and guard the eggs until they hatch - the family's standard arrangement, run at the bottom of the same coral head the cloud lives above.

## Also known as

- **English:** blue-green damselfish, Green Chromis, Blue Green Chromis
- **Hebrew:** כרומית ירקרקת
- **French:** Chromis vert, Demoiselle Bleue, Demoiselle bleu-vert
- **Italian:** Castagnola blu verde
- **German:** Grünes Schwalbenschwänzchen
- **Spanish:** Castañuela verde azul
- **Portuguese:** Donzela-esverdeada
- **Dutch:** Blauwgroen juffertje
- **Polish:** garbik zielony
- **Czech:** sapín zelený
- **Japanese:** デバスズメダイ, Debasuzumedai
- **Chinese:** 厚殼仔, 水銀燈, 蓝绿光鳃鱼
- **Russian:** Зелено-голубой хромис
- **CA:** Castanyoleta blau verdós
- **DA:** Blågrøn jomfrufisk
- **FIJ:** sara
- **MSA:** Gombing
- **TAH:** 'atoti

## Scientific synonyms

- *Dascyllus cyanurus* Rüppell, 1838
- *Glyphisodon bandanensis* Bleeker, 1851
- *Heliases frenatus* Cuvier, 1830
- *Heliases lepisurus* Cuvier, 1830
- *Pomacentrus viridis* Cuvier, 1830

## Range

Comoros, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/bluegreen-chromis)*
*Updated: August 15, 2026*