Damsel fish ID... Dusky

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Puffer Fish

Captain Happy
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I looked up pictures of juvenile Dusky Damsel's and then made a point of getting pictures of the babies we have here.. and then compared adults

Here is a general fish ID for it:

Stegastes adustus, Dusky damselfish : aquarium


And a third, with again a different fish:

Dusky Damselfish - Stegastes adustus - Tropical Reefs

And a site with a picture of a juvenile:

Picture of Juvenile Dusky Damselfish | South Florida Snorkeling

And lastly.. another picture of a adult.. which is totally different:

[url=http://www.dosits.org/gallery/fishnbay/12.htm]Dusky Damselfish: Audio Gallery for Discovery of Sound in the Sea[/URL]

And a totally different juvenile:

http://www.fishbase.org/photos/PicturesSummary.php?StartRow=0&ID=12416&what=species&TotRec=2

So, are these all the same fish?

Here is what we have off Destin:

Young:

Damsel202.jpg


garinj


Damsel208.jpg


Damsel302.jpg


And adult:

Damsel204.jpg


Damsel200.jpg


I have a lot more images.. going from tiny fish to adults...so what is it really? And if it is, then what are those other fish?
 
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The juvenile looks like a Longfin damselfish except that it has no blue at the edge of its anal fin, which is bothering me. The juvenile Longfin has blue lines on the top of its head, fading to dots that form "long blue lines." The Longfin juvie looks very similar to the Cocoa juvenile. It's swimming with a bunch of Purple Reefish, also a member of the damselfish family, and another fish I've never encountered (also in photo 2).

Photo 3 is a Spotfin Butterflyfish.

Due to the lack of bright blue edging on its anal fin, I'd call the adult damselfish a Dusky. Adult Dusky and Longfin are very similar. I could be wrong about that ID.
 
The juvenile looks like a Longfin damselfish except that it has no blue at the edge of its anal fin, which is bothering me. The juvenile Longfin has blue lines on the top of its head, fading to dots that form "long blue lines." The Longfin juvie looks very similar to the Cocoa juvenile. It's swimming with a bunch of Purple Reefish, also a member of the damselfish family, and another fish I've never encountered (also in photo 2).

Photo 3 is a Spotfin Butterflyfish.

Due to the lack of bright blue edging on its anal fin, I'd call the adult damselfish a Dusky. Adult Dusky and Longfin are very similar. I could be wrong about that ID.

The fish in front of the Butterfly was the reason for that picture.

Fish base (in the link above) shows the Dusky Juvenile to look like this:

Duskeydamsel.jpg


While several others show it to look like this:

dusky_damselfish_ell70de0q8848ko0g4.jpg


They all cannot be Dusky's.. or if they are then heck every damsel fish might be a dusky.

And perhaps more importantly, those are not purple reef fish, they are the juvenile Damsels...we have some reef fish that hang out with them...but so does the other damsel fish.. they all school together..

Here is a picture with the three different fish together:

Damsel201.jpg


There is one reef fish.. one coco/B gregory (or whatever) and two juvenile of what grows into that purple/blue/green damsel...

An adult reef fish ends up looking like this: (top fish.. we know the other one)


Damsel206.jpg


and while we have some of them (obviously), we have no where near the number we do of the other two.
 
The blue green damsel's are highly iridescent... they are blue purple from the back and blue from the side or front... as adults, they are green/purple/blue.
 
I would not be surprised if this is not a native fish.. even the adults school (which all the local Damsels don't).. they are not at all aggressive, which the cocoa's are...and have only seen them in recent years.
 
This appears to be an intermediate.

Duskeydamsel.jpg


This is a juvenile Dusky.

dusky_damselfish_ell70de0q8848ko0g4.jpg


I have no idea about the blues...
 
This appears to be an intermediate.

Duskeydamsel.jpg


This is a juvenile Dusky.

dusky_damselfish_ell70de0q8848ko0g4.jpg


I have no idea about the blues...

There seems to be several schools of thought on that issue, depending on where one lives.. but I like your definition. Wish we had them here, lovely fish.

What we have is thousands of the blue guys...from juvenile to adult and every stage inbetween.
 
You are right. The little blue guys grow into the dull-colored adults you've pictured. The adult is a purple reefish, not a dusky damsel. ID'd by its pectoral fins. The reefish has clear pectoral fins. The dusky's are opaque and have black dots at their bases. Also, the dusky doesn't have any blue lines on its face.

The reefish in the photo that you added is a yellowtail.
 
Nice work... a fish that has only been ID'd since 1968 (just after I started diving).

It seems to have made it's way all the way up to the most northern part of the gulf..

Seems to have a lot of different common names.. but Chromis scotti would seem to be better names by the Purple Chromis title.

For a tropical fish, they sure are hardy.. as we get down to the 50's here in winter. Was not looking, but they may migrate (which would also be new for that fish).

That explains their shy habit and the schooling. Thanks a ton.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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