Sold by Tropica in a tissue culture cup as ‘Cryptocoryne nurii‘, this small crypt is doing very well in the Fireplace Aquarium.  Unlike the smaller bright green leaves in the tissue culture form, the new growth submersed form leaves are larger and have a very pretty mottled dark green and dusky rose colouration.  Sometimes this […]

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Cryptocoryne wendtii ‘flamingo’ is an (allegedly) bright pink variant of Cryptocoryne wendtii.  I thought some bright colour might be nice in the lower front of the Fireplace Aquarium, so I picked up a pot from Aqua Essentials.  I used my favourite cryptocoryne planting technique – cut all the emersed leaves off – which worked a […]

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I’m becoming more fond of Cryptocoryne as submersed aquatic plants.  They come in a wide variety of colours, sizes and textures, tolerate low light and are pretty much maintenance free.  I always plant these after cutting off the emersed leaves to promote faster Cryptocoryne adaptation to submersed form growth whilst avoiding ‘crypt melt’. Cryptocoryne walkeri […]

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They say Cryptocoryne lutea ‘Hobbit’ is a small crypt, but saying it and seeing it are two different things.  This is a really small crypt!  The original idea was to have a small plant to go in front of the Lobelia cardinalis ‘Dwarf’ to hide the rooty lower stems of the Lobelia without covering up the […]

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Jurijs Jutjajevs’ (of Tropica) has a “pro tip” for avoiding ‘crypt melt’ and getting Cryptocoryne species more rapidly adapted to submerged growth in an aquarium:  cut off all the emersed form leaves when planting.  It’s quite a dramatic thing to get your new plants in from the vendor and then immediately cut all the leaves […]

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It’s been seventeen weeks since the Cryptocoryne lutea ‘Hobbit’ was planted so it’s time to take a look at how the emersed growth form from the shop compares to the submerged growth form in the tank. Aquarium plants for commercial sale are, for economic reasons, almost exclusively grown “emersed” – the roots of the plant […]

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