I recently planted some Pogostemon yatabeanus outside in my raised brick pond, and just as it often is in my 75G aquarium, it’s the fastest growing plant in my pond. So much so, that it’s grown right up out of the water. Of course, I did cheat a little bit by transplanting some stems that were already starting to grow emersed from my 75G, hence the deformed leaves, burnt by my light strip, but plenty of others have since grown up out of the water.

It’s interesting to see how, when emersed, the stem is a nice red color, where submersed it’s much more subdued. The leaves are much waxier above water, while below water, the stems tend to lie horizontal to the water’s surface, sending vertical side-shoots out of the water.

I have no doubt that before long, I’ll be posting about Pogostemon yatabeanus flowers!

I just received my July 2007 issue of Tropical Fish Hobbyist this week, and was delighted to see that the cover article is about breeding the Celestial Pearl Danio, previously the Galaxy Rasbora. After all, I previously noted that this species, while just introduced to the hobby, is in danger of being over-fished and exterminated from its original habitat. Due to my own trouble breeding these guys, I eagerly looked inside to see what I was doing wrong. Apparently I missed the boat somewhere because they’re supposedly prolific egg scatterers, spawning almost daily in neutral to slightly alkaline water. But that wasn’t the thing that struck me.

While reading the article, I was startled to read that the Celestial Pearl Danio apparently isn’t really in such dire straights as originally reported. The article uses the following reasoning why the reported crisis is nothing more than rumor:

• Collecting aquarium fish benefits local people, so they won’t over-fish because then their livelihoods are affected.
• Normally, when supply diminishes, price goes up. However, the wholesale price for the Celestial Pearl Danio has continued to drop.
• The fish have been found to originate from more than one pond, as was originally suspected, and it’s unknown how much more widespread they may be through their region.
• Since they’re such prolific egg layers, even if the adults were all fished from a pond, the eggs would hatch, and they’d make a comeback.

While this sounds like great news, all of this logics appears to be author speculation, fueled by the stated belief that they don’t want the aquarium hobby to be blamed for the destitution of a species. I’m delighted if this news is true, but for me, it’s going to take more convincing before I recommend that everyone go out and buy this fish. At the very least, I would encourage any potential buyer to ask questions of their fish store owners about the origins of the fish in their tanks. If the Celestial Pearl Danio, is as prolific a breeder as claimed, then fish farms should soon have a captive breed supply, leaving the original habitat unaffected.