FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 72, NO. 4 



Table 46. — Food of Chromis leiiciirus. 



Chromis verater Jordan and Metz 



This damselfish is one of the more prominent 

 fishes over both coral and basalt reefs in Kona at 

 depths below about 15 m. During the day it swims 

 in plankton-feeding aggregations that hover 2 to 5 

 m above the reef, where changing light levels and 

 the appearance of certain predators produce ef- 

 fects much as described above for Abudefduf ab- 

 dominalis and other planktivorous pomacentrids. 

 Also as in these other species, C verater passes the 

 night among cover on the reef, relatively quiet but 

 alert. It moves about under moonlight, but rests in 

 crevices on dark nights. 



Of the seven specimens (120: 100-141 mm) ex- 

 amined, two that were collected from among cover 

 on the reef shortly before first morning light (one 

 after a night of bright moonlight, the other after a 

 dark night) contained only a few well-digested 

 fragments, whereas, all five speared from aggre- 

 gations above the reef during afternoons were full 

 of food (including fresh material), as listed in 

 Table 47. 



Swerdloff (1970b), who recognized that C. vera- 

 ter inhabits relatively deep water, reported the 

 following categories of prey in 13 specimens from 

 one collection on the island of Oahu (ranked as 

 percent of the diet): copepods, 71.5%; tunicates. 



17.6%; malacostracans, 4.7%; mollusks, 2.5%; fish 

 eggs, 1.7%; and siphonophores, 1.7%. He also pre- 

 sented additional data of food habits, as he 

 compared the ecology of C. verater with that of 

 its congener C. ovalis see below). 



Gosline and Brock (1960) noted that C verater 

 occurs in deeper water than other Hawaiian 

 pomacentrids. This conclusion was later sup- 

 ported by Brock and Chamberlain (1968) who, 

 making observations from a submarine, found C 

 verater to be the most abundant reef fish around 

 rocky outcrops at a depth of 70 m. 



CONCLUSION. — Chromis verater is a diurnal 

 planktivore that takes primarily copepods and 

 larvaceans. 



Chromis ovalis (Steindachner) 



This species is less numerous in Kona than any 

 of the other planktivorous damselfishes described 

 above. It occurs over irregular substrata of ex- 

 posed basalt interspersed with coral at depths be- 

 tween 5 and 20 m. During the day it aggregates 2 

 to 5 m above the reef — at about the same level as 

 C. verater. with which it often forms mixed groups 

 (Swerdloff, 1970b). Its reactions to changing light 

 and threatening situations are as described above 



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