Chromis pacificais the newest species of damselfish that, as the name indicates, is a tropical reef fish from the Pacific Ocean. While the name might be new, this is actually a redescription ofChromis agilisthat once included a broad ranging damselfish species but now is only recognized as occurring in the Indian Ocean, leaving the Pacific populations as of yet unrecognized and in need of official describing.
Compared to the ‘true’ Indian OceanC. agilis,Chromis pacificahas a larger black spot at the base of the pectoral fin, greyish purple stripes along the rows of scales, and more rays in the dorsal and anal fins. FurthermoreChromis pacificacan get quite a bit bigger by almost a full inch to three inches or around 80 mm, whereas the Indian OceanC. agilisusually only grows to 55 mm.
Chromis帕西菲卡是一个非常普遍和常见的reef fish species across the Pacific Ocean from Palau and the Coral Sea in the west, all the way through this huge basin to the Hawaiian and Pitcairn Islands in the East. If you’ve ever been diving anywhere within this range there’s a good chance you have already seen this fish since it occurs in relatively shallow waters from 5 to 55 meters, deep. The official (re)description of Chromis pacifica was performed by the powerhouse of fish taxonomists Gerald Allen and Mark Erdmann in theJournal of the Ocean Science Foundationand we’re curious to see what they’ll describe next.