The ``Rasbora'' somfongsii is a representative fish whose name you may know from illustrated books but have never seen in real life.
Currently, it has been transferred from the genus Rasbora to the genus Trigonostigma, but the representative species of this genus, Heteromorpha and Espei, are still commonly called Rasbora, so we will not discuss them here. I'll call it rasbora. It's not a treatise on ichthyology, so you won't have to think too hard about it. It would be a good idea to remember that the real scientific name is that it belongs to a different genus.

This "Rasbora" Somphongusi was not a difficult fish to obtain about 30 years ago. At that time, this species was rarely stocked alone, and when Boraras urophthalmoides arrived, it was mixed in with the fish. It seems that when there were many, half of them were of this species. However, although Boraras urophthalmoides is constantly being stocked these days, this species is never mixed in with the stock.

There's a reason for that. In the past, Boraras urophthalmoides was collected near Bangkok, Thailand and sent to Japan. However, since a habitat where it is easy to collect them was found in southern Thailand, almost 100% of the fish collected in southern Thailand is now sent to Japan. This species does not live in southern Thailand, so it does not mix with fish collected there.

Mania is a complicated thing; sometimes you don't want it, but other times you want it. When this species was no longer available on the market, enthusiasts of small, beautiful fish would scramble to find a way to obtain it. The same goes for me as I write this manuscript, and every time I go to Thailand to report on fish, I try to somehow find information on the habitat of this species. I first started looking for Urophthalmoides in the vicinity of Bangkok because it was mixed in with Boraras Urophthalmoides. Although they found several habitats of Boraras urophthalmoides, they were unable to find the species.

This species is relatively easy to breed as a member of the Rasbora family. I was successful in breeding about 25 years ago. Fish in this genus are thought to lay their eggs on the underside of leaves of wide-leaved aquatic plants such as Cryptocoryne, but this species is a little different. It is true that the breeding method is to attach eggs to aquatic plants, etc., but eggs can be laid even if the aquatic plants do not have particularly wide leaves. Bushes such as willow moss are also sufficient. In the case of an empty aquarium, they may lay in sponges and filter pipes. Hatched larvae require food such as infusoria at first, but they will be able to eat artemia in a few days, so management is easy after that.

I personally have a strong attachment to this species, and my dream was to someday discover its habitat in Thailand, but in September of last year, I discovered its habitat from Mr. N, who had previously shared this species with me. So, I was grateful for the invitation to go collecting together when I came to Thailand. It seems that Mr. N's acquaintances, who are aquatic plant researchers at a university, asked him to identify a fish they found during a survey. By the way, Mr. N is a huge fan of tropical fish and was the first to discover Betta mahachaiensis.

A few years ago, I had a chance to ask my acquaintance Mr. N to share a pair of this species.
Apparently, he received some of the bred fish from a German man who discovered this species. At that time, I was relieved to find out that this species was not extinct and was still living quietly somewhere.
The pair I received was successful in breeding, but due to my work I was often away from home, so unfortunately I lost it.

As we head towards the suburbs from Bangkok, rice fields and wetlands become more prominent. In some places, roads are even flooded due to rising water. The car stopped next to a rice field near a private house, a place where people normally wouldn't collect food. Apparently this is the habitat of Somphongusi. It is a paddy field with a special type of rice called floating rice that can reach over 1 meter in height when the water is high, and it is a still water area that is also rich in other aquatic plants such as water lilies.
Mr. N said it was his dream to see this species swimming with his own eyes, so he checked the fish with underwater goggles in the slightly murky water. First, his friend and I went looking for fish. Soon after, he discovered Somphongusi! I couldn't wait so I put my net in there and saw a small Somphongusi along with a large number of fish. They seem to live in schools together with smaller fish such as Rasbora rasbora, Rasbora rubrodosaris, and Rasbora spirocerca. Of course, Boraras urophthalmoides is also with us. However, the population density is low. When it came to collecting fish, three skilled people spent an entire day collecting only about 20 fish. According to Mr. N, the population density is low now because the water level is high, but when the water level drops during the dry season, the habitat will change from places like rice fields to places like waterways, and the population density will rise a little more. .

By the way, Mr. N and I divided the fish we collected into half and took them home, but both mine and N's got a little scratchy and died, so in the end we ended up with 7 fish each. At the time of writing this manuscript, it was finally possible to tell the sexes of the seven cats we keep, but only one of them is female. Of the seven cats that Mr. N is breeding, only one is female. This imbalance in sex is the same even when breeding, and both Mr. N's and his German acquaintances seem to have a bias toward having more males and fewer females. If there are many females, it is possible to have many children, but if there are few, the number of offspring that can be reproduced is limited. At present, it is extremely difficult for collected fish to reach the market for the reasons described here. I hope that breeding fish will become available in the near future and that many people will become familiar with this fish once again.

I am very satisfied that I was able to take a photograph of a group of "Rasbora" Somphongusi, which has been my dream for many years. The aquarium hobby is not a shallow hobby where you can easily get anything you want for the money. Nothing can replace the joy of achieving something after so many years of waiting. Dreams can come true if you have passion, but it is also a mixed feeling to see your dreams gradually diminishing.