# Crypt. affinis i need any and all info on this plant.



## will5 (Oct 26, 2005)

I bought the plant yesterday at the swap meet for $3 but i don't know the first thing about it. So any and all help/ info on this plant would be great.

Thanks.


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

will5 said:


> I bought the plant yesterday at the swap meet for $3 but i don't know the first thing about it. So any and all help/ info on this plant would be great.
> 
> Thanks.


I can only get it to grow by itself in a natural style tank. It takes over under these conditions and disliakes being disturbed or changing conditions possibly more than most crypts.


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## Kai Witte (Jan 30, 2006)

Hello Will,

it prefers tapwater with a decent amount of calcium and also not very acid water.

Expect its leaves to melt but it usually will grow back easily. It is a really nice crypt (with many different strains) for a low tech tank! It's just hardly ever offered commercially because of the melting problem at the LFSs; swapping with fellow hobbyists has worked nicely for many, many decades though.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Way back in the 1950's it used to be the most common crypt in America. In fact, it was almost the only one. This was long before CO2 additions and fertilization, and at that time it was also considered anathema to put any soil in your tank. The plants back then had very dark blue-green leaves with intense purple undersides. I wish I could find that variety now. The variety I see today is a taller plant with less brilliant colors as in the picture below. Growing conditions are: moderately hard water, no CO2, low fish load---just a few tetras, some soil under the gravel, no fertilization, low light.


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## PaiNai (Feb 23, 2007)

"Way back in the 1950's it used to be the most common crypt in America" - I can confirm this from the Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia by then). When I was a kid – in early seventees – all my class mates (fellow hobbyists) had their aquariums filled with dense crypt bush. You can imagine the hard conditons school kids can prepare for their plants – too cold water (water heaters were expensive then), not enough light, too many fish in the tanks + overfeeding... And the crypts did very very well, in normal untreated Prague tap water. Something has changed since then and now I consider affinis rather difficult and much more easier to melt than other species.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

In my tank (picture above was taken in 1967) _C. affinis_ apparently thrived under conditions of low nutrients. I think that a lot of crypts do. PaiNai's observations, however, contradict that because the Czechlslovakian crypts are reproted as doing well in tanks with heavy fish loads. Were these crypts _C. affinis_, PaiNai?

The ones that do well for us submersed these days might be tolerant of high nutrients. I have no idea what it is about high nutrients that could be harmful. I don't think that there is very much in the plant nutrietion research literature about plants being harmed by nutrient levels that are high but not so high as to cause osmotic damage to tissue. Possibly high ammonia is harmful and the others much less so. These statements are all hypotheses.


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## JKUK (Feb 16, 2007)

In one of my tanks I have some of the old _C. affinis_ with the bright red undersides. These plants are from stocks which date back into the 1960's, these too are very prone to melting. Recently I noticed that the aquarium was getting some direct afternoon sunlight, so I decided to shade it from this.
Within days they were melting all over the place. They seem a little less prone once well established, and definately grow back better and faster.


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## will5 (Oct 26, 2005)

*Hi*

Well the the one i bought in a bag was planted in a baby food jar and once i got it home i left it in the "pot". The i noticed it was not one but four plants. Two adults and two babies.  Go me it's my birthday. arty: All for three bucks and that not bad in my book.


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