# Emersed Pogostemon Stellatus



## DJKronik57 (Apr 17, 2006)

My local fish store recently got a shipment in of emersed pogostemon (eusteralis) stellatus. Do I have to do anything special to get it to grow submersed? Will it totally die back and regrow in its submersed form? 

Currently it is in my high light shrimp tank. It was pretty beat up, the stems were in a pot and were starting to turn to mush in the rock wool. It had no roots to speak of. It has narrow, slightly jagged edged leaves in pairs alternating up the stem, which is quite thick. Does this sound like the emersed form? Anyone have any pictures of the emersed form? I'll try to post a picture if I have some time. Thanks for any help you can offer, I'd be so excited if I got this to grow, I've always wanted some pogostemon stellatus! ray:


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## czado (May 26, 2005)

I believe Xema posted pics of it in the Emersed forum but I cannot find the thread now. Here is lucidcentral's page with pics: http://www.lucidcentral.com/keys/APPW/html/pogostemon_images.html

For whatever its worth, I converted one stem to emersed culture but neglected it and subsequently had it shrivel up. I then submerged the remnants and within a couple weeks had it branch to the small grouping in the rear left of this pic. In this limited experience I find it is not difficult to convert it from emersed ro submerged culture, and I was surprised by how resilient the plant is.

Hope this helps some.


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## Salt (Apr 5, 2005)

Just plant it submersed. I got mine from Oriental Aquarium, who only ships it emmersed. It will lose its emmersed leaves and grow submersed ones.

It's sensitive to magnesium levels. Check levels and make sure they are below 10 ppm.

Putting root tabs (flourish, etc.) at the base of the stems helps a lot.

It is one of the more fussy plants... it can be going great and can all of a sudden start to lose leaves, stop growing, etc. even though there aren't any perceivable changes to the tank. They say the broad leaf species variation is more reliable.


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