General Information

COMMON NAMES: Black Chromis, Pale-tail Chromis; German Metall-Chromis; French Chromis noir, Demoiselle à Queue Jaune GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE Indonesia - Pitcairn; n. to s.Japan; s. to New Caledonia COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Native; PLUS: S.Group and N.Group. Outer reef-slope.; Marine, near-shore, 3-35m; often aggregate near drop-offs KEY FEATURES: A large chromis, to 15cmSL, of variable colour. JUVENILE blue, with dark blue bars on hindcheek and on hind-gillcover, and dark spot in axil of pectoral; tailbase and tail with wide yellow margins, w/wo yellow on other fins. ADULT grey to blackish with darker bars on hindcheek and hind-gillcover, and dark spot in axil of Pectoral; w/wo white tailbase and tail. In our area it is not known if we have white-tailed adults or only uniformly grey. SIMILAR SPECIES: See under Half-and-half Chromis (Chromis iomelas), which is dark with a white hindbody.

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea:
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
P

Northern Group: Present
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
	P		P

Chromis xanthura (Bleeker, 1854)
SYNONYMS: Chromis xanthurus [alt. spelling]; Heliases xanthurus Bleeker, 1854

TAXONOMY: ANIMALIA; CHORDATA; GNATHOSTOMATA (Jawed Vertebrates); PISCES; OSTEICHTHYES; Perciformes; Labroidei; POMACENTRIDAE, Chrominae

Vouchers:
Rarotonga: field ID N.Sims (Sims88). Aitutaki: field ID N.Sims (Sims88). Palmerston: Listed (Preston95). Manihiki: field ID N.Sims (Sims88). Pukapuka: Photo 25m outer reef-slope ID J.E.Randall (Sims88).

References:
text p.167 Myers (1991 2nd Ed.) Fishes of Micronesia
plate 77f Myers (1991 2nd Ed.) Fishes of Micronesia
p.262 Randall et al. (1990) Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef....
p.387 Burgess et al. (1988) Atlas of Marine Aquarium Fishes (TFH)
plate 79-08 Lieske & Myers (1996) Coral Reef Fishes
plate 65-15 Allen (1997) Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia....

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM02, zupM06a, zD06a

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