# crypt willisii



## cornhusker

anyone have much experience with c. willisii? i planted,( they came in small bunches)in one of my tanks in about May.they have just sat there looking stupid.for the exception of a small amount of bba,that i'm working on getting rid of,plant looks healthy.should they be split apart more before planting or does it matter?i have anubias that grow much faster. are these crypts in same catagory as parva?i.m now thinking that albida would be a better choice.also albida is a BEAUTIFULL plant. regards.cornhusker


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## bharada

According to the Kasselmann book, willisii is thought to be a cross between C. parva and either C. beckettii or C. walkeri. What does yours look like? I got some from AquaBotanic last summer that looked like large parva&#8230;









But then I ordered some from AZ Aquatic Gardens last week which look like this&#8230;









Very confusing.


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## bharada

Oh, I should add, the ones I got from AquaBotanic (the short ones) grow in clumps and don't send runners out. So you need to break apart the rhyzome to spread them out.


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## Gomer

Crypts will send out runners. Sometimes it takes longer than others. I have the willisii from robert too and they all sent out runners over time.


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## Gomer

AZ gardens WILL substitute "similar" plants on you without even telling you just because they can according to their "not in stock" policy....mind you even things appearing to be in stock on their site are not always in stock. <--this is from personal experience on my orders with them.

The "az willisii" you have does not look like it at all to me.


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## bharada

Gomer said:


> AZ gardens WILL substitute "similar" plants on you without even telling you just because they can according to their "not in stock" policy....mind you even things appearing to be in stock on their site are not always in stock. <--this is from personal experience on my orders with them.
> 
> The "az willisii" you have does not look like it at all to me.


Makes me wonder what it is since the picture in the Kasselmann book looks like the AB willisii. The funny thing is that Naomi (gnome) mentioned that she didn't like willisii because of the long petioles and spoon-shaped leaves (based on pictures someone one showed her of it)-which looks just like what AZ shipped.


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## HeyPK

Those AZ willisii look to me like some kind of wendtii. We will have to wait a few months to see what the new growth is like, but it definitely is not C. x willisii. These are some plants I had. They do send out runners, but they are short ones. They used to call this plant C. lucens. The leaves can get partially brown in good light.










I really had a lot of this plant once.









There is another C. x willisii that they used to call C. nevillii. This one has shorter leaves that taper towards a pointed tip and which almost always stay green.


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## bharada

Paul, those Crypts are outstanding! I wish I could keep my AB-willisii so clean of algae!

The AZ-willisii looks nothing like any wendtiis I've ever grown. I'm just hoping that it stays short. 

[addendum]
Paul, now I see that the bottom pic is of emersed growth. I guess that's as good a way as any to fight green spot! :lol:


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## HeyPK

No, the bottom picture is submersed growth! The tank was a 15 gallon with no fish and no CO2 enrichment. Two 20 watt fluorescents. The much larger crypt is a green wendtii.


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## bharada

Reall? I though you were growing it in a glass baking dish!  Anyway, outstanding Crypts!


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## HeyPK

I did grow those plants in glass baking dishes, but they were submersed.


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## cornhusker

thanks everyone for your input. the crypts i have are like the ab ones. i will split them when i move them to another tank. as far as getting algae i would think that willisii and parva would be prime candidates. i thought anabius were bad for algea,these plants are much worse.plantbrain say's we should not have algae,but would'nt that be hard on all the algae eater sales.thanks again everyone. regards,cornhusker


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