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Cryptocoryne Riparium

Wow! Love it all 😀
 
I acquired another new species from a local shop, Cryptocoryne usteriana. It is quite an attractive plant.

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I did not plant it into the this display tank just yet. I instead potted it up, then placed into a smaller growout tank with the crown a few centimeters down below the water's surface. The new leaves should be compelled to grow emersed. The submersed leaves that it has now are almost 45cm tall. I hope that the plant will fit into the display tank as it grows up into an emersed specimen.
 
Here' another neat plant, Cyrtosperma johnstonii.

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I don't have this one going in the crypts tank, but it is an aroid (Family Araceae) just like crypts are. C. johnstonii grows as an emergent in rainforest swamps. It can get to be ~1 meter high, but I hope to be able to control the size of this one. Right now it's only about 20cm tall. I am working on a new open-top tank where this plant might work well as a centerpiece specimen.
 
This tank is finally getting closer to what I had in mind. Here is a new update from the other night.

30-xi-09-tank-i-b.jpg

Some of the plants had grown up so big that I was disappointed that I didn't plant into a larger tank but after removing the large Java fern and Anubias barteri I have found that everything else scales really well with the dimensions of this enclosure. This should be a good long-term, low maintenance setup. I hope that I will be able to maintain this look with just routine water fertilization and occasional trimming.

This image was post-processed a little bit for exposure.
 
I got a shot with a view down through the top of the tank too.

30-xi-09-tank-ii-m.jpg

I wish that I could leave the tank with the canopy off, but these plants are all high-humidity selections so I have to keep it covered up.
 
Thanks so much samc.

Here's another kind of cool picture from last week. This is an open spathe of the large Anubias barteri that I removed to another tank a little while ago because it was getting too big.

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It is substantially larger than the spathe of A. barteri var. nana (which has bloomed for me many times), but otherwise similar.

29-xi-09-anubias-barteri-nana-spathe-ii-s.jpg

That US dime is about 18mm in diameter.
 
I got a quick shot of this thing last night--overgrown again. I need to make some time to clean it up this week. That C. wendtii and Bolbitis there in the middle get too big pretty fast, but I like them a lot.

23-i-09-tank-overgrown-i-m.jpg

The C. usteriana has some new emersed-grown leaves on it. That plant will also outgrow this setup. I wish I had a bigger tank for some of these more robust specimens.
 
I have started to shuffle things around in here. I took the opportunity to get a few specimen pictures. Here is one of the handsome and good-sized Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia.

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This one had a spathe going on it. I think C. pontederiifolia might be the easiest crypt to bloom. I often see spathes on mine.

24-i-10-cryptocoryne-pontederiifolia-ii-m.jpg
 
Here is another specimen shot, Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Tropica'.

cryptocoryne-wendtii-tropica-i-m.jpg

I ought to have gotten this photograph with a white background--it's difficult to see the leaf coloration against black.

I like this plant a lot too. The leaves have such rich coloration.
 
Nice pics Devin, thanks for sharing :thumbup:

I wonder whether Tropica crossed the Wendtii with something to produce the Wendtii tropica variety or whether it is a natural mutation that they cloned. To my eyes It looks to me like a cross between Wendtii and Bullosa. I have a curious mind!
 
Is that Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Tropica' grown emersed or is it still under the waterline, I have the same but underwater and the leaves are a lot smaller and a lighter shade. Nice seeing how plants change from submersed to emersed.
 
Thanks johnnyjr, That 'Tropica' was grown emersed. It seems as though this plant grows larger and with more richly-colored leaves when it develops emersed.

I wish that I could have gotten that shot against a white background to better show the leaf coloration. Now I'll just have to wait a few months for it to grow in again.
 
a1Matt said:
Nice pics Devin, thanks for sharing :thumbup:

I wonder whether Tropica crossed the Wendtii with something to produce the Wendtii tropica variety or whether it is a natural mutation that they cloned. To my eyes It looks to me like a cross between Wendtii and Bullosa. I have a curious mind!
Click to expand...

Thanks a1Matt, I think it is probably just a C. wendtii variety. It seems that they are fairly serious and rigorous about plants at Tropica, so they probably would not have named it as a species if it were more likely a hybrid.
 
I tore this tank down, then set it up again. Now it's at a local garden center shop.

23-ii-10-tank-iii-m.jpg

Here's a better view.

23-ii-10-tank-i-m.jpg

I added hardscape (stones + manzanita driftwood) too after getting this picture. I'll come back with a couple more image files when I get them loaded. I have some new plants in there too and some comments on them to add.
 
Absolutely wonderful journal so far, Devin!

Crypts are my favourite species of all time and to see them showcased like this is amazing.

I really need to try my hand at this... Fancy coming over to the UK to give a demo to UKAPS?!

I'm surprised this isn't more popular. For me I think it's the fear of getting it wrong due to lack of knowledge but with your work it is certainly seeming more attainable.

Kudos on the photography too. It's something as a viewer we often take for granted.

Thanks again for sharing!
 
Thanks very much George. Really these setups are pretty easy to keep.

Now that I moved it I only have one crypt in there, a C. pontederiifolia. The other new plants are mainly spathiphyllum and other tropical houseplants, which are a bit more resilient than most crypts.

Here is a quick shot that I got after adding the hardscape, some rounded river stones and manzanita driftwood.

23-ii-10-tank-ii-m.jpg
 
I was over servicing this tank the other night and I got a got a couple of pictures. Here's an FTS. The fish were all hiding in the shade--I should have thrown a food wafer in there to draw them up front.

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The stem plants have grown up quite a bit.
 
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