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Help with Cryptocoryne Striolata

Katmanreef

New Member
Joined
17 May 2021
Messages
21
Location
USA
Hello everyone! I've been growing cryptocoryne striolata submersed for about 2 years now and I'm always having trouble keeping the older leaves from slowly melting.

I was wondering if anybody has any experience with growing this specific cryptocoryne submerged, without the loss of older leaves. Any input is welcome, I'll include a full tank shot and picture of the specific plant

My tank is:

-11 gallons tall
-Co2 supplied via in tank diffuser
--off gassed tank water pH 7.15
--Co2 peak at lights on is pH 5.85 until lights off
-Full EI dosing (I use dry salts from nilocg and rotala butterfly calculator for mixing my dosing bottles and dose amount)
-50% water changes once a week with distilled water remineralized to 3kh/6gh with salty shrimp
-6 hrs of light with hiro aquatics led wrgb 50w lights at 50% intensity
-old ada amazonia aquasoil mixed with composted oak and cattapa leaf litter, capped with sand
-in tank filter/power head combo attached to a spray bar
-also a seperate tank connected with plumbing and filter sock for filtration, including lava rock and sponge for beneficial bacteria

If I need to include more specific information, let me know. Thank you!
 

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I'm not an expert, but I could provide you with my experience with them. I've personally found that crypts don't fare well with nitrates, my tanks with pretty much 0 ppm nitrates produced the much healthier plants. They also like a very stable environment, is changing 50% of your water per week necessary? especially with your filtration system and bio load. Maybe you could reduce the percentage of water you change per week?

Beautiful scape by the way, the epiphytes look very healthy.
 
Cryptocoryne Striolata is one of the most difficult crypts to grow long term submerged so your doing pretty well as it is, water parameters seem right but would agree with the suggestion on lowing the amount of water change but that may upset something elsewhere ? the same applies to upping the lighting by an hour .
 
I'm not an expert, but I could provide you with my experience with them. I've personally found that crypts don't fare well with nitrates, my tanks with pretty much 0 ppm nitrates produced the much healthier plants. They also like a very stable environment, is changing 50% of your water per week necessary? especially with your filtration system and bio load. Maybe you could reduce the percentage of water you change per week?

Beautiful scape by the way, the epiphytes look very healthy.
Hmmm, interesting points about the low nitrates. I've been dosing EI level ferts to my tank for a year now. Most of my plants (other than the cryptocoryne striolata which stayed the same) has reacted positively to the dosing. My weekly targets are:
N 22ppm
P 6ppm
K 22ppm
CSM+B (.2 ppm Iron as proxy)

I've always followed the idea that by doing the 50% water changes, the accumulation of ferts will never go beyond double of weekly targets. I maybe following an outdated philosophy on dosing, but I'm kind of scared to change routine, if you know what I mean.

I can always change the dosing recipe to include less nitrates, or any of the nutrients as well. My bioload right now is:
6 pygmy cories
5 Celestial Pearl Danios
2 Ember Tetras (which I cannot catch/net for the life of me, the rest has been transferred to another tank)
3 Amano Shrimp
1 otocinculus
Various snails and neocaradina shrimp
Also thank you for the kind words!
 
I also think you are doing well so far with the Striolata. It appears to be quite big with several leaves.
I wonder how many leaves are natural to keep for this plant, I know the number of leaves can vary quite drastically between species of Crypt.
Perhaps yours is just at the limit?
 
Cryptocoryne Striolata is one of the most difficult crypts to grow long term submerged so your doing pretty well as it is, water parameters seem right but would agree with the suggestion on lowing the amount of water change but that may upset something elsewhere ? the same applies to upping the lighting by an hour .
It's definetly a difficult crypt to grow, I just want it to do well :( and thank you for the kind words. As replied above, I can always change the recipe for my dosing to lower the accumulation of ferts that would be mitigated by the 50% water change. I just need some help/advice in dialing down the dosing as that's not something I am well versed in.

For increasing the light duration, the fixture has a preset timer for 6/8/10/12 hours, and preset intensity for 25/50/75/100% that's built in. If I plug the light into a seperate timer, everytime the lights turn on, the intensity goes back up to 100%, and it doesn't save the previous intensity :(

I also have a daughter plant of the Cryptocoryne Striolata growing in my 'sump' with much lower light, but closer to the surface with somewhat healthier growth, still some issues with old leaves melting though.

I have yet to rent/purchase a PAR meter to get accurate readings on the levels of light I have in any of my tanks, which is my next major goal. Here is a picture of the crypt in the sump:
20220411_162411 (1).jpg
 
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I also think you are doing well so far with the Striolata. It appears to be quite big with several leaves.
I wonder how many leaves are natural to keep for this plant, I know the number of leaves can vary quite drastically between species of Crypt.
Perhaps yours is just at the limit?
Thank you! The leaves on this particular Crypt is getting bigger and bigger, about the length of my hand (15cm + and getting bigger 😅)

For this particular plant, I only have 3 healthy leaves and the rest have been slowly melting on the edges. I'm at the point now where I may scrap this plant as it's getting too big, melting old leaves, and the rest of the plants in the tank are doing fine. I just don't see the reason to change the environment for one plant when the rest are doing so well :/.

There is also one thing I have not tried yet which is root tabs. I'm not sure of the viability of root tabs, but my ada soil is about 3 years old now so I'm sure the nutrients are long gone.
 
I also have a daughter plant
Ooh, how did you produce this daughter plant?

I cant be of much help other than to cheer you up a bit by showing you my Striolatas, which are doing relatively much poorer compared to yours :lol:
The top one is "Tiger" and the half buried bottom one is a "Mini" that insists on laying its leaves flat on the sand, so the kuhli loaches can bury them :crazy:

20220511_170413.jpg
 
Thank you! The leaves on this particular Crypt is getting bigger and bigger, about the length of my hand (15cm + and getting bigger 😅)

For this particular plant, I only have 3 healthy leaves and the rest have been slowly melting on the edges. I'm at the point now where I may scrap this plant as it's getting too big, melting old leaves, and the rest of the plants in the tank are doing fine. I just don't see the reason to change the environment for one plant when the rest are doing so well :/.

There is also one thing I have not tried yet which is root tabs. I'm not sure of the viability of root tabs, but my ada soil is about 3 years old now so I'm sure the nutrients are long gone.
Please don't scrap the Striolata, i'd take it off your hands in a flash as can't source them in the Uk.
The fact your other plant in more shade looks healthier should tell you something, i have a Cryptocoryne species tank, upto 20 species/types and as mentioned before on here i get much better growth and no melt when the top of my aquaruim is covered in 50% plus floating plants, better growth, less algae and no melt.
 
Please don't scrap the Striolata, i'd take it off your hands in a flash as can't source them in the Uk.
The fact your other plant in more shade looks healthier should tell you something, i have a Cryptocoryne species tank, upto 20 species/types and as mentioned before on here i get much better growth and no melt when the top of my aquaruim is covered in 50% plus floating plants, better growth, less algae and no melt.
I would send them to you in a heartbeat if I knew how! I live in the USA so I'm not sure what the legalities are when sending live plants over seas. I would also not scrap this plant to dispose of, but just move it over to my sump/emersed bin for safe keeping. I just dread seeing a melting plant in the main display, surrounded by pretty plants just chugging along like nothing happened lol.
 
Ooh, how did you produce this daughter plant?

I cant be of much help other than to cheer you up a bit by showing you my Striolatas, which are doing relatively much poorer compared to yours :lol:
The top one is "Tiger" and the half buried bottom one is a "Mini" that insists on laying its leaves flat on the sand, so the kuhli loaches can bury them :crazy:

View attachment 188483
For this particular Cryptocoryne, I've never seen a runner form, at all, in the 2 years I kept it. I've read somewhere online that for Striolata, you have to split/cut the rhizome like you would for Anubias/Bucephalandra to encourage the leftover rhizome to push out a new growing tip.

I've also noticed that Striolata has a very impressive rhizome size compared to other cryptocorynes I've kept. Over the 2 years I kept it, I split the rhizome maybe 4 times total, creating 4 plants, with one split rhizome melting completely. It's a little risky since they are such sensitive crypts already but worth the risk I believe.

20220512_144201.jpg
The red line indicates where I would normally cut the rhizome. You want to preserve roots on both pieces and leave a good amount of rhizome on the main growing tip. I always use a fresh razor blade that's been cleaned in rubbing alcohol to make my cuts. Here is another picture of a main growing tip and it's daughter rhizome next to it with a barely noticeable plantlets forming.
20220512_145040.jpg
Your cryptocorynes look very nice as well! Other than the bba :p, I've tried hydrogen peroxide on some striolata but they hated me for it lol. Hopefully this information helps!
 
That's some beautiful looking Striolata - I wish I could get my hands on a plant too, its like hens teeth over here!

Given it has such a large root stock, have you guys tried any substrate feeding (root tab, osmocote ball etc)?

It looks like this crypt inhabits quite shallow and fast flowing streams in the wild in Borneo, so perhaps it is more evolved for higher levels of CO2, or requires more flow past the leaves, than most crypts perhaps? (Just throwing ideas out there)


 
That's some beautiful looking Striolata - I wish I could get my hands on a plant too, its like hens teeth over here!

Given it has such a large root stock, have you guys tried any substrate feeding (root tab, osmocote ball etc)?

It looks like this crypt inhabits quite shallow and fast flowing streams in the wild in Borneo, so perhaps it is more evolved for higher levels of CO2, or requires more flow past the leaves, than most crypts perhaps? (Just throwing ideas out there)



It's definetly a very beautiful Cryptocoryne! Do you live in the US or over seas? I can send you some if you're in the states!

Im actually starting a project with one of my cryptocorynes in the sump and just added API root tabs that I had leftover. That particular Crypt is growing in eco-complete(inert lava rock based substrate) and has been doing pretty good in lower light.

The one in my main display with high light is struggling, and I can't push the Co2 any higher without making the fish gasp. On the other hand, in the connected sump with the same concentration of Co2, the crypt in lower light under numerous floaters is doing MUCH better, although it has less flow and still has issues with minor leaf melt. I also believe you are correct in guessing that this particular Crypt evolved to require more Co2, as seen in the video, the leaves being closer to atmospheric Co2 and the higher flow probably gives the plant abundant Co2 in very high concentrations.

Which leads me to believe that my crypt in lower light has less demand for Co2, and in response is doing much better. Some other information I picked up online is that plants with very red undersides on their leaves have evolved to require less light to survive. I'm not sure where I read the article, but I'll try to find it.
20220513_123127.jpg


I'll let you guys know how the root tabs effect the growth in a couple weeks!
 
Fluctuating water temperatures might induce melt!
You have a good point GHNelson. I have my heater in my tank set to 23°c and do not have a chiller, so if we have a heatwave, the tank temp does creep up to around 25°-26°f on the hottest days. Maybe it has to do with the solubility of gasses at higher temperatures, leading to inconsistency of Co2?
 
Please don't scrap the Striolata, i'd take it off your hands in a flash as can't source them in the Uk.
The fact your other plant in more shade looks healthier should tell you something, i have a Cryptocoryne species tank, upto 20 species/types and as mentioned before on here i get much better growth and no melt when the top of my aquaruim is covered in 50% plus floating plants, better growth, less algae and no melt.
I agree, crypts seem much happier in indirect light. I've noticed that they change the position in which they sit too, in direct light they seem to lie more flat and spread out. In indirect light the leaves are closer together and point upwards, making the plant seem fuller; which to me is more aesthetically pleasing + the other benefits to the plant you mentioned.
 
Water change temp should be similar....if out of tolerance range than the set temperature in the tank/sump might cause melting of the leaves!
This sp likes dappled lighting add more floaters to the surface or floating stems like Hygrophila difformis.
Change some of the substrate media too sand/rice sized grains of gravel to the ADA ....add some root tablets which are not slow release tablets!

My Crypt nurii just love fine sand....JBL Sansibar with root tablets....maybe something you could try later!
 
Water change temp should be similar....if out of tolerance range than the set temperature in the tank/sump might cause melting of the leaves!
This sp likes dappled lighting add more floaters to the surface or floating stems like Hygrophila difformis.
Change some of the substrate media too sand/rice sized grains of gravel to the ADA ....add some root tablets which are not slow release tablets!

My Crypt nurii just love fine sand....JBL Sansibar with root tablets....maybe something you could try later!
Thank you for the pointers! I try to match the water temperature going in during water change as much as I can so far, at least for the bucephalandra. I've had some nasty melt with temperature differences during water change with some of the more sensitive buce. I have the crypts growing in Eco-Complete right now with 1/3 of an API root tab in the glass jar they are in. Should I replace all the eco complete or top it with sand? Or a mix of both?
 
Hi Sorry
I would remove the Crypt from the glass jar and use a small pond basket with a filter bag to hold the substrate media!
Mix the Ecco complete with sand or gravel or both!
One root tablet per plant will be sufficient....;)
 
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