Crypts for the Paros tank

[Grete Gillebo]

Hello everyone,

I’m new here, and just in the process of preparing my first Paros tanks. I have been an aquarist since the late 70’s and have 4 tanks running.

Now for my question : Cryptocorynes are recommended as being able to stand the extreme environment of a Paros tank. But the crypt species these fish have in their natural habitats are very difficult to come by…I’m thinking of longicauda, fusca, yuji and pallidinerva, for example. So, which crypt species have you tried, and which have you had any success with ?

[helene schoubye]

Hi Ghia, welcome to the forum, – I just approved your post.
All new users always has to have the first post approved, – so if you did not understand what happened to your post, thats why..
🙂

Kind regards Helene

[Grete Gillebo]

Thank you, Helene ! I knew about the delay, it is not uncommon for new users in a forum. But you were very quick 🙂

[Peter Finke]

Ghia, to begin with your first sentence. The crypt species you mention are not “recommended” to stand the conditions of Paro-tanks, but – indeed – they need similar conditions. However, there is a very remarkable difference: They live in slowly s t r e a m i n g waters at special places only. At these places there are constant nutrient flows from the bottom; they do not exist on other places.

Up to now we are unable to cultivate these species under submersed conditions, that is: in an aquarium. If we cultivate them it is in an emersed way in a special soil, mainly composed from beech litter.

What does that mean? It means that in a tank with stagnant water it is impossible (up to now) to cultivate plants that require both: a stable very acid water near pure H2O, but a constant flow of special nutrients from their roots. If you move yor water (by a filter or by air) this is not the same; up to now we are incapable to imitate that nutrient flow and nevertheless keep the water surrounding the leaves with that extremely low content of minerals and that low pH (often 4 or less) that both is necessary for them. Therefore we try to cultivate such species under emersed conditions (and even that is a compromise).

To put it in other words: The structure of the aquarium is not suitable for the submersed cultivation of these crypt species (as pallidiveria, fusca etc). But remember: Our Paros do not occur on such places where they grow but on places mostly without any submersed plants. There maybe quite amounts of riparian grasses, wood, old leaves, but nearly no sumersed aquatic plants. Why? Because they cannot stand these extreme conditions.

What you are thinking about is an old dream of some aquarists: the underwater garden in a tank; but that is o u r dream, it’s not the reality of the habitats in nature.

I cannot recommend to you other crypts as suitable because they need other conditions than the Paros. Of course, you can try C. affinis, but it favours much harder waters less acid. Or you can use Sri Lanka-crypts (as wendtii or willisii) but it’s the same with them. They will live for some weeks, but kept under the conditions of our Paros they will eventually get weaker and die.

So, your idea – take those species that occur on places with very pure water and a very low pH – is allright in the first moment, but it is not if you think further: You cannot provide that nutrient flowing milieu for them that they need without destroying the stability of the Paro-milieu.

I shall not exclude that somebody manages to find a “third way”, but it wil be a compromise not ideal for the Paros and not ideal for those crypts. (By the way: In Europe, we have some crypt-specialists who cultivate some of those species, under emersed conditions). In the aquarium trade they are not to be found, and will not be in future, for the reasons mentioned. They are not suitable for cultivation under the conditions of aquarium tanks.

[Grete Gillebo]

Thank you, Peter ! Then I will forget about the crypts. I had pretty much the same impression that you outline, and have no thoughts of making “pretty” Paros tanks. But just thought it might be somehow possible with some species, since it is recommended on this site.

[Maurice Matla]

Creative folkes can create good looking tanks with few materials just as well. It si all amatter of taste ofcourse about wich as the Dutch saying goes arguing is pointless.

[Tautvilas Laureckis]

I have tried to add these species in pots to paro tanks:
C. cordata var. didencis, c. dewitii, c. bankogoensis, c. fusca, c. villosa
However, they did not show good growth and I had to put them in a plastic bags outside the tanks. They do much better here.
Seems to be good to add old oak and beech leaves, alder cones from paro tanks for crypts.

[Grete Gillebo]

Thanks for the input, yankadi ! From the other replies to this topic, I decided to leave crypts out. Now I have som java ferns, java moss and Ceratopteris thalictroides, which seems to work well so far. And roots, leaves (beech and catappa) and alder cones… 🙂

[Peter Finke]

Yankadi, all the species you mention are hitherto not being cultured well in a submersed, but only in an emersed mode (with the leaves growing outside of the water in heavily moist air); in a substrate composed from old beech- and oakleaves, as you say. You should tell us whether your way to care for them in plastic bags is emerse too, or submerse. I know nobody in the whole world who is capable to grow these species submersely in aquaria today. Every progress in this direction would be of great interest, but it is not very likely.
There is no var. “didencis”; the right name is var. diderici.

[Arno Beißner]

No cryptocoryne …. but the Bucephalandra growing bei mir in ph lower than 5

[Grete Gillebo]

That is interesting. Trying Bucephalandra was an idea I had, too…but I have zero experience with them and didn’t have the courage to experiment with such expensive plants. They are also very hard to find here in Norway. Which sp. is this ?

[Arno Beißner]

It is a motleyana ‚Melawi’, i think. Same problems whith the names as by Paros 🙂
bucephalandra is a business you need a lot of patience.
fast-growing is an other business department 😉

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