# Emersed Cryptocoryne's and Anubias



## Layout420 (Jan 26, 2012)

Hello everyone this is my first post here on Plantedtank I'm a long time member of APC and a long time crypt enthusiast, figured I'd share some pics of my plants. Enjoy 

A few months ago I had a few fruits and managed to about 10 seeds per fruit. Here are a few pics of the fruits and then the what the plants look like today.

C. becketti fruit









C. wendtii fruit


















C. wendtii 









C. becketti (I only got one flower from all of my becketti's I think it was pollinated by a C. spirialis)









C. tropica









C. albida in the middle and then some C. pontederiifolia and some HC









C. wendtii 'Tropica aka bronze'









C. lucens









C. albida



























C. wendtii 'green'









Anubias 'Gasser' with some random crypts, big crypt in the back is C. ciliata









C. becketti with HC









C. pontenderiifolia









Anubias 'Gasser'


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## wetworks (Jul 22, 2011)

Awesome pics. You have a nice collection of emersed crypts, thanks for sharing them.


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## mallardman12 (Oct 29, 2011)

I love your anubia! Where did you find that jewel?


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## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Welcome ! Glad you came over we have a good group of Crypt-Keepers here, some you'll know from APC. Stop by this thread & meet all the usual suspects: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/plants/158684-crypt-club.html

The Becketti you sent me is doing well, I've transitioned it to submersed form and it;s in my 40g. looks great! thanks


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## klaus07 (Nov 23, 2011)

welcome aboard, I think over half of my crypts and anubias came from you.


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## Jeromeit (Sep 30, 2011)

You're 954baby on APC right? Welcome to the forum! Love your plant quality!


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

Welcome to TPT, much much better than that other forum .

Awesome crypts and man, they're so healthy! Are you using straight ADA AS? Do you normally keep them enclosed in domes? How were you able to pollinate the flowers to create seeds? Sorry for all the questions lol. You've peaked my interest with those pictures .


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## Layout420 (Jan 26, 2012)

> You're 954baby on APC right?


Yep, I'm a long time APC member under the name 954baby. Thanks for the welcome and such kind words :hihi:



> Are you using straight ADA AS?


I have a mix of soils I use depending on the species but mostly I am using Aquasoil. I started out with Amazonia II and put a bottom layer of laterite. That combo seemed to work really well. Also I had left over Eco Complete so I had some pots with Eco Complete. Lately I've been trying to convert all of my pots to the new Amazonia. So far so good, It seems to be growing my plants really well. As with any change in substrate I've had some melting and an occasional death. I am starting to add other things to the soil like soaked leaves and leaf litter. I can find it locally in oak forests. That stuff seems to really add to the growth. I've been also converting pots to the coconut husk type liner, those seem to hold up better and you can really hose them down as opposed to the peat type liner that I started out with. Those grow fungus and molds really easily and they break down really fast. I sometimes add some of the left over liners I have into the bottom of pots to help with growth. 

As far as fertilizing I use a hydroponic fertilizer made by the company Fox Farm. It's a general hydroponic fertilizer that seems to do the trick. I was fortunate to get my hands on some of that TPN+ that there was a group by on, so I've been using that stuff too. So far so good with the TPN+. Generally I add a cap full of fertilizer when I change the water either weekly or bi weekly. Then I put a cap full in my water bottle and mist every other day or so. I have so many plants so I just try to keep them sprayed as much as I can. Some of the pots have 50+ plants so I try to dose accordingly. 



> Do you normally keep them enclosed in domes?


Yep, I buy those standard humidity domes that you can get from any hydroponic supply store. I think I pay 1.50 for the tray and then like 5-6$ for the dome. So far I am up to like 12+ domes and then a 29 gallon glass tank, 2 10 gallon glass tanks, a 5 gallon glass tank, a 25 gallon styrofoam cooler, a 10 gallon styrofoam cooler and I think that's it. I try to keep them at higher humidity but I don't have a gauge so I really don't know the exact levels. The domes have 2 vents on the top and I generally leave 1 closed and the other semi open. I do know that my average humidity for where I live is on average over 70-80%. South Florida is a really humid place.



> How were you able to pollinate the flowers to create seeds?


Pollinating the seeds was really the luck of the draw. I had a big season in terms of flowering, I'll take a guess and say I had 100+ flowers. So, I would just try to leave the vents to the domes wide open and then I would also try to take any pots that had flowers and put them inside a humidity dome with as many other flowering pots as I could fit. It was like my flower dome. I remember having an abundance of bugs inside my domes. Right now I am getting flowers and I don't really see many bugs if any in the domes. At the height of the season I will probably have swarms of bugs. I had cut open a few of the flowers and a few times there were bugs trapped inside. How the flowers work is they open up and then within an amount of time (I am not sure) they become mature and then the pollen is ready to pollinate, they close up inside and this traps any of the bugs that are inside the flower and this leaves them stuck inside where the pollen is. They become coated with pollen and then when the flower releases them they fly to other flowers and so on. This is how the pollination process of crypts works. I was just lucky. 4 times. It's the best feeling.


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## Layout420 (Jan 26, 2012)

It's been a long time but here are some updates. The flowering season is starting and I've got a bunch of newly opened spaeth's to show. I finally got a spaeth on a plant that I've had for over 2 years and could never identify.

Anubias 'Gasser' flower









I had always questioned the identity of this plant. It was unlike any of the other species I had. I got it with a bunch of rhizomes of C. parva. It was tiny for so long. Eventually it became pretty massive. It's been at least 2 flower seasons without any but finally it bloomed. Luckily I checked that setup because ironically I never check it. I went in there to package up some C. ciliata and was pleasantly surprised. My guess is a C. wendtii species.


























Here are pics of the leaves

















Here is a pic of it back on 11/21/10, it's in the back









C. beckettii, this flower is sometimes yellow, sometimes yellowish green. I had noticed it 2 days ago. Funny how much happens in 1 day. First pic is yesterday and then the flower is today.

























C. undulata, this species comes from Florida Aquatic. I have another species of C. undulata too.









At it's best C. undulata looks like this








Here is that other species of C. undulata. I rarely get flowers from this species. The intensity of the coloring is un comparable to the other species of C. undulata.









Here is a species of what I believe to be C. wendtii, It's been 2 years and no flower yet. During flowering season it gets very colorful so I'm waiting for that to happen.

















Here are some pics of the crypts I grew from the seeds I got.

C. beckettii seeds

















C. pondederiifoila, I didnt get any flowers last season so I'm hoping for a good season they are looking pretty good right now.









I haven't done this before but I got 2 monster pots and I'm curious to see how much they can grow in the next year having so much space to really take off compared to the mini 3" pots I use

C. willisi x lucens








C. wendtii 'green gecko'


















This pot is really interesting, I started it out as 2 Anubias 'Gasser' I had gotten them from a fellow APC member a few years back. They did pretty good in my tank but then they got too big so I converted them to emersed. They did pretty good but when I split them in half they kinda never grew much in the next year. I had a few daughter plants over the next few months but the parent rhizomes never did much. I've had them in that pot for over 2-3 years now and they have never grown in length but they keep sending out daughter plants. I've easily clipped 40 off of the 2 parent rhizomes. I threw a bunch of anubias nana petite in there as well. Also I threw in a c. beckettii about a year or so back. That has really livened up the pot. It is home to a family of 5+ baby frogs. I think of them as the pets I have that I don't feed. 










Sometimes I get unwanted pests, Here is the damage a caterpillar can do. If you let them go for a few days they can easily damage an entire pot. This guy was maybe in there for a day or 2.


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## mallardman12 (Oct 29, 2011)

Those crypts look so healthy. do you keep any submersed?


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## Layout420 (Jan 26, 2012)

> Those crypts look so healthy. do you keep any submersed?


Nope, not at this time. I do have plans to build a 50-70 gallon tank at my dads business. He has the tank but we have to do a few things to get it ready. He's got a client that distributes gas so he's getting a CO2 tank and regulator this week. I have a nice 4 foot long CF light fixture and we are most likely going to put a flourite/eco complete type of substrate in. Going to order a power head and a Eheim 2215 canister filter. I have a ton of crypts and java ferns and anubias to populate the tank with, and a ton of drift wood. Should have it up in about a month or so once everything arrives It might take a week or 2 to get it ready to add water. I'll post some pics. I will probably put 1-200 crypts in it. The tank is 4 feet wide by 2 feet tall by 1 foot deep.


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## Layout420 (Jan 26, 2012)

C. wendtii 'green gecko'

































An unknown C. wendtii, I posted pics of the plant and the leaves in my last post 

































C. undulata 'Florida Aquatic species'

















Some species of C. willisi x lucens

















C. moehlmannii, I thought this was long gone in my collection. It looks almost identical to C. pontederiifolia but now that it flowered I can see the subtle differences between the 2 species. C. moehlmannii grows taller and has a more yellowish green shade to it.

















I got another spaeth on that unknown C. wendtii species









C. wendtii 'tropica aka bronze'

















Random C. wendtii, probably red

































C. pontederiifolia is finally going to flower this year, been 2 years since any of mine have flowered. Last season I had about 200 plants that did not flower 









Pot of C. albida with HC 









Hydrocootle is flowering in my swamp/wetland tub

















A family of frogs is living in one of my tanks, I found some eggs today

















Here is the tank

















3 C. beckettii spaeth's ready to bloom, I hope they all go at the same time it would be a cool pic


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

Nice collection.


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## speedie408 (Jan 15, 2009)

Thanks for answering my questions above. 

One more question. I know Florida is always warm so are you keeping these domes outdoors under direct sunlight? I just couldn't help but notice in the pics that they seem to be... 

Great update btw.


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## Layout420 (Jan 26, 2012)

> I know Florida is always warm so are you keeping these domes outdoors under direct sunlight?


Yep, I keep them all outside. I have a screened in patio that helps keep the intensity of the sun down. Also, I keep them in an area that gets direct sun from 12-1PM ish until 4 or so. All the rest of the time they get indirect sun. I am also going to have to change the location of the plants soon because I'll bee having temps in the mid 90's and although they can tolerate the higher temps the water can reach 100+ degrees and that is no good. I've had the water temp in the mid 80's these past few months with my styrofoam containers in the low 80's to high 70's. Last year I got temps in the high 90's when it was very hot out. No deaths but they should probably have temps in the mid 70's-80's. I have plans to drop the tiny humidity domes I am currently in and purchase a 2x4 foot plastic bin with a humidity dome top from the hydroponic store. I want to be able to control the water a little better right now i'm having problems with algae and fungus/mold. My idea is to have the water level just at the base of the plants and have it pumped in from a sump and hopefully the current will keep the algae down this way I can filter the water. If my idea translates as good as I hope it will be quite impressive. I'll post pics of the entire operation if I get it up and running. Should cost upwards of 400$ to get it up and running but it will really cut down the work I have to do 10 fold. Right now I have 15+ set ups that require water changing bi weekly. Each water change at it's fastest takes 5 min.


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## Layout420 (Jan 26, 2012)

Cryptocoryne wendtii 'tropica aka bronze'









C. moehlmannii









C. pontederiifolia with some java fern









C. wendtii 'red' (left) and C. wendtii 'copper' I think









an unknown cryptocoryne, any ideas...









C. beckettii


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## nantuko (Feb 13, 2012)

/drool I love seeing these amazing emersed setups! Subscribed.


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## roznalos (Aug 18, 2008)

Really nice setup! Mine never really got super thick since they're indoors and not receiving enough light. Contact me if you're interested in some rare crypts. I have a bunch of extras(maybe) at home. (elliptica, schulzei, etc.)


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## Layout420 (Jan 26, 2012)

Some emersed Eriocaulon parkeri









I think this is Eriocaulon linnaeus, grows locally in the southern states









It rained for 3 days and the snails in my moss container started to crawl all over the sides, I've never seen them active like this before









Dwarf Hairgrass, Eleocharis acicularis









Cryptocoryne albida threw up a new runner









Cryptocoryne 'Tropica aka bronze'









































Cryptocoryne 'Red' ??









Cryptocoryne undulata, species from Florida Aquatic

















Cryptocoryne willisi x lucens

















Random Cryptocoryne wendtii, they are all usually a blur to me so hard to identify the species
































Cryptocoryne lucens finally put out a spaeth, first time in over 1.5 years

















I was having bad melt so I tried the method of putting oak tree leaf litter around the plant and I have to say it is actually working quite well

















This is really starting to take off










An unknown Cryptocoryne wendtii species











Cryptocoryne ciliata is getting kinda big this time of year









Cryptocoryne beckettii is one of my favorite flowers, it opens up so nice

































HC growing in an orange juice container. I put some aquasoil in the bottom and dropped a few pieces of HC and a Cryptocoryne wendtii inside. Really is taking off









5" pot with Cryptocoryne albida overflowing with HC

















Cryptocoryne wendtii species


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

hi i'm glad to see you share your photos here too
they're beautiful i can watch those photos all day
great plants, great emersed setup


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## Layout420 (Jan 26, 2012)

It's been a really busy past few months for me so the updates have been rather slow. I've been taking pics tho so not to worry I have a bunch of cool stuff to share I just need to find the time to sort through everything and post some stuff. I had mentioned on other threads over at APC that I was going to try to culture fruit flies and see if I could pollinate my flowers. I looked on the internet and found a few places to get cultures from but never got anywhere. For a while I had been trimming my plants and leaving the trimmings in this styrofoam bucket, over time the decaying plant matter attracted fruit flies and now I have a pretty active culture of flies sitting in the middle of all my humidity domes. I threw in some fruit and other stuff and they are really loving it. I'm hoping to get a few flowers pollinated this season. I was able to some how get a few more fruits on a few of my C. wendtii species. I have a few pics to share of the newly discovered see pods. I counted 6 so that is going to be pretty cool to share. I am also looking to take a HD video of some of my setups to share with everyone. Anyways here are some pics, enjoy 

Here is that bucket of flies I was talking about, Looks nasty but there are tons and tons of flies in there.









C. moehlmannii

















C. lucens

















Not sure of this species but It's commonly called C. nevellii , it reminds me of a mix between a willisi x lucens and a lutea 









C. spirialis 'dwarf', next to C. ciliata this is the coolest spaeth I have

























My chain swords are starting to send off runners


















C. ideii, somehow this one melted completely but came back strong. It's that oak leaf litter I've been using. Stuff is really helping some of my melted plants come back!









Here is a species of C. undulata that I've had for a few years now, it's flower is almost identical to my common species of C. undulata but overall the plants look nothing alike. This species is very sensitive and melts at the drop of a hat. It was entirely melted but has come back strong. I've only had one flower ever from this species. Coolest flower too, so many shades of the same color. 

















Some species of C. cordata, I think









More to come over the weekend


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## Marconis (Nov 8, 2010)

Jealous of that beautiful Crypt collection. One day I want an all-Crypt tank.


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## Layout420 (Jan 26, 2012)

Haven't posted in a minute but I still have my crypts. Haven't had much time for them but they are all pretty healthy for the most part. Cool news, I have spotted 10 fruits/seed pods growing. I already have 2 that matured. 

Mature fruit from a C. wendtii hybrid




























25 seeds from one and 20 from the other. I've grown about 5 fruits before and the most seeds I got was 10-12. Some of the fruits I have this year are very large. So far this season I found 8 on my C. wendtii hybrid plants, 2 in C. beckettii, 2 in C. wendtii green gecko, and 1 in C. undulata. I had experimented with attracting large quantities of fruit flies to my setups and It appears to have paid off. I'll be posting more about the process and will be giving away some seeds so others can try their luck at growing from seed.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

wow, i dont think ive ever seen a crypt fruit before. 
if youre willing to sell me a couple of seeds, id love to try germinating them. if your interested, please pm me with the prices for the seeds for the species whose seeds you got.


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## bitFUUL (May 14, 2010)

Yeah, how can we get some seeds? I'm in Orlando.


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## Layout420 (Jan 26, 2012)

Been a while but here are some updates to my collection. 

Cryptocoryne undulata









One of my domes with some Anubias nana, Cryptocoryne albida, and then some random emersed stems

















Cryptocoryne usteriana x walkeri, Cryptorocyne ciliata, and some random plants with hyrocotyle sp japan 









My 29 gallon that has been up for like 2-3 years now, periodically I add ferts and water but otherwise it's untouched. Recently a big rain flooded it. Everything seems to be doing just fine underwater


















I think this is Cryptocoryne Mi oya









Cryptocoryne usteriana x walkeri









I am not sure what stem plant this is but it took over









These are random plants that I grew from seed. The mother plants are Cryptocoryne wendtii 'green gecko', Cryptocoryne wendtii 'hybrid' (a hybrid I grew from wendtii red and some other random plant) , Cryptocoryne beckettii wild collected, and Cryptocoryne wendtii 'tropica'. There are like 10-15 different species in there, all of which were grown from seed and are approximately 2 years old. Most of which flower regurarly and I have gotten a few seed pods already too. 

A flower from a C. wendtii 'green gecko' seed









A flower from a C. wendtii 'green gecko' seed. Different from the one pictured above. Notice the color difference, one is red and one is bronze









A flower from a C. wendtii 'green gecko' seed. Different from the one pictured above.









C. wendtii 'green gecko'









C. beckettii wild collected

























Anubias sp, got this from someone here but I forgot the species









Anubias nana petite, had this for like 2-3 years with such little growth from hiding in the shade of larger plants









S. repens









Anubias nana narrow leaf









Hydrocotyle sp Japan


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## Layout420 (Jan 26, 2012)

Hydrocotyle sp Japan









Some random stems









All of these plants from seeds that came from my cryptocorynes









A plant from a C. beckettii seed. Most likely crossed with C. wendtii

















A plant from a different C. beckettii seed


















A plant from a C. wendtii 'tropica' seed









C. wendtii 'tropica'

















Grown from seed, C. wendtii 'green gecko' mother









C. ideii


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