# C. wendtii Deficiency?



## webcricket (Oct 16, 2006)

Does this look like a trace deficiency? I have both old and new leaves developing these holes. The holes are really only visible from underneath the leaf. Eventually the leaves showing the problem melt. This has been going on for a couple of weeks, but the plant was healthy for several months before and growing like a weed. Growth seems to have stopped (other plants in tank continue to grow) since the problem showed up. I dose Seachem's N, P, K, and Flourish using EI and I add Excel daily. I've had this crypt melt before when I first got it, but there weren't these small holes showing up in the leaves then. Any ideas? Up the Flourish?

I should add the tank is populated with dwarf puffers and an oto. No snails or other inverts.


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## SCMurphy (Jan 28, 2004)

What is in the substrate?


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## webcricket (Oct 16, 2006)

Substrate is an inert fine grain gravel, about 2.5 inches deep.

You think root tabs might be called for? Any particular brand?


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## EDGE (Feb 28, 2004)

Looks kind of like K deficiency. 

Seachem Flourish tab will work. 


1/2 piece of Jobes stick for palms and ferns will work as well. I wouldn't use jobes stick if you disturb the substrate a lot.

How much light do you have?


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## webcricket (Oct 16, 2006)

This is in a 10 gallon with 2X10 watt screw-in CF bulbs (not the spiral kind, these are more like tubes).

Hmmm...I think maybe I'll try upping the K then before anything else. The last time I ODed the Flourish I got a bad thread/hair algae outbreak, the K seems safer to experiment with first. I wasn't too sure about the K since the holes don't go all the way through the leaf.


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## SCMurphy (Jan 28, 2004)

K is a possibility, and my first guess too, but you would have to be adding none to get that look to the leaves.

When I am starting a new tank I will give crypts that look bad a 1/4 or smaller piece of Jobe Stick, standard kind. That seems to get them past the initial shock of the new tank. However, I am using a soil substrate, so all I am doing is carrying them over the hump of getting a good root mass established. 

You need to give crypts something to feed on long term at the roots to have really good growth. The water born nutrients aren't as important for them.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Here is a picture of K deficiency in C. wendtii. I know it was K deficiency because I corrected the deficiency by adding KCl to the aquarium. The pattern of the holes is similar, but the leaves did not melt even as the holes got larger and the leaf started looking very 'raggedy'. Also, these holes only showed up in the older leaves, not the newer ones.


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## ruki (Jul 4, 2006)

I've seen that before. It happens more to Wendtii than other crypts for me.


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