---
title: Jordan’s Damselfish (Teixeirichthys jordani)
scientific_name: Teixeirichthys jordani
common_name: Jordan’s Damselfish
taxon: Pomacentridae
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-11-14T23:45:12.948Z
updated: 2026-08-15T14:31:18.649Z
tags: Jordan’s Damselfish, Teixeirichthys jordani, Pomacentridae, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/pomacentridae/jordans-damselfish
---

# Jordan’s Damselfish (*Teixeirichthys jordani*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Pomacentridae (*Pomacentridae*)
- **Size:** up to 14 cm
- **Depth:** 4-20 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Seagrass beds and open sand, away from coral
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- slender pale gray-blue fish, more elongated than a typical damselfish
- small dark spot at the upper base of the pectoral fin
- in schools over seagrass and sand, not over coral
- length up to 14 cm

A slender pale damselfish schooling over seagrass and sand - which is not where damselfish are supposed to be.

The family is defined by attachment to structure: a coral head to drop into, a patch of rock to defend, a territory to hold. This one gave that up. It lives in open water over soft bottom, in schools, with nothing to hide in, and it is built for it - longer, slimmer and faster than the stocky fish that live in coral.

It feeds on plankton in midwater and spawns on whatever hard surface it can find, which on a seagrass flat means a shell, a stone or a scrap of rubble, guarded by the male as usual.

Fourteen centimeters (5.5 in). Divers cross these flats on the way to the reef and see the school without registering what it is, because a damselfish in open water over grass does not look like a damselfish.

## Also known as

- **English:** Jordan's damsel, Spotted Damsel
- **Portuguese:** Donzela-de-Jordan
- **Czech:** sapínek Jordanův
- **Japanese:** スジスズメダイ, Suji-suzumedai, Sujisuzumedai
- **Chinese:** 厚殼仔, 喬氏細鱗雀鯛, 喬氏蜥雀鯛
- **CA:** Castanyoleta de Jordan

## Scientific synonyms

- *Pomacentrus formosanus* Fowler & Bean, 1922
- *Pomacentrus jordani* Rutter, 1897
- *Pomacentrus polylepis* Regan, 1908
- *Pristotis jordani* (Rutter, 1897)
- *Teixeirichthys formosanus* (Fowler & Bean, 1922)
- *Teixeirichthys mossambicus* Smith, 1953

## Range

Mozambique, Red Sea, Seychelles

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