Damselfish maturity

kreblak · May 27, 2003

I have a yellowtail damsel that has been an active fish and a strong eater for some months now. In the last month or so, his coloration has gotten extremely bright, with the blue becoming a little darker and more brilliant, and the yellow brightening up considerably. Yesterday, I noticed that the yellow coloration is beginning to move forward on the fish from the tail. Most of the coloration change is occuring on the lower half of the fish, as well.

I have seen pictures of "Stark's Damselfish" which look like yellowtails but have a yellow lower half and a yellow tail. Is the Stark's damselfish just a mature yellowtail? Is my fish's coloration change just natural maturity?

Sharyl C · Jun 7, 2003

Stark's damsel (Chrysiptera starcki )
is a blue with yellow on it dorsal surface from mouth to tail.

There are 2 species of yellow tail damsel - on from the red sea (Pomacentrus trichourus) and one from the carribean (Microspathodon chrysurus).

if you have an idea about where you damsel originated that may help. Another species of damsel you may want to look at is the cocoa damsel (Stegastes variabilis). I have a nice mated pair - and they seem to fit the coloration description of how your damsel is changing. I don't recall what the immature looks like though.

Check out www.fishbase.org for more info on each of these.

Hope this helps.

Ray Pollett · Jun 8, 2003

Actually there are quite a few that at times are called Yellowtail damselfish, Yellowtail Blue Damsels or Yellowtail Demoiselle. Many LFS call them all yellowtail damsels or yellowtail blue damsels.

Some are:
Chrysiptera cyanea
Chrysiptera parasema
Microspathodon chryurus
Neopomacentrus azysron
About 5 of the Pomacentrus

That is why comon names can be a real pain; this group is one of the best examples of this.

Ray


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Damselfish maturity

kreblak

FDA approval pending

Sharyl C

Mola and Me

Ray Pollett

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