# Journal: pics and info about some of my rarer crypts



## bsmith

Since I converted my office mini-m to a low tech (no co2/dosing/high light) I decided to make it a crypt tank. And in my lust for uncommon and rarer varieties I found some that fit that bill.

C. Ideii, I really like this plant. It is a great size and other then growing slowly I have no complaints. Cant wait for it to split so I can put it in one of my higher tech tanks and see what it looks like in a super nutrient enriched environ. 









C.Nurii, Don't have much to say on this one yet. Just got it from GG a few days ago and after taking off all of the leaves because of melting put it in the tank


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## Tex Gal

Hard to see the color on the C. Ideii. It's a little washed out in the photo. You're gonna love the C. nurii. Here's mine from GG that I got at the AGA conference. I love the tiger striping.


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## bsmith

I really wish I had a better camera. I feel all of the colors you see in person are washed out when ever I take pics of my plants. Oh well ill just have to wait for when I can get a good one for my wife on her b day or something.


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## ddavila06

bsmith said:


> I Oh well ill just have to wait for when I can get a good one for my wife on her b day or something.


lol big time!!!

my ideii melted and i think it might be gone by now,  my nurii are doing very well too, yours will likely grow quickly too


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## bsmith

ddavila06 said:


> lol big time!!!
> 
> my ideii melted and i think it might be gone by now,  my nurii are doing very well too, yours will likely grow quickly too


Hey what's mine us here and hers is mine. What I use it for is of no concern to her. 

Your experience with the crypts is strange since all of the info I can gind says the ideii should be easier to grow than the Nurii.


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## chad320

Hey bSmith! Did your nurii bounce back? I got one from speedie and it melted and died. It only had one leaf and no roots so I think it was too early to pull it for sale. If you find one LMK, I want one BAD.


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## bsmith

Here is what I posted in the first post in a new thread I created over at TPT.

Here is the link to the thread.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/planted-nano-tanks/124580-10760-manchester-part-ii-mini-m.html

Chad-The Nurii is still dormant/dead but hope still exists!

The other thread for this tank encompassed over 35 pages and 3 years and 3 months of my journey from Planted Idiot to whatever I am now. So figured it was time to start a fresh one because this tank is completely different in just about every aspect from what it once was.

Here is the old thread if you want some background info. 

I hope you enjoy the journey, 10760 Manchester part II Mini-M/Cryptocoryne+CRS playground.

The tank- ADA Mini-M
Lighting- Walmart aluminum desk lamp with a 13w spiral CFL
Substrate- ADA Aquasoil II Ammazonia
Filter- Eheim 2213
Fauna- CRS/C.Habrosus/Horned Nerites
Flora- Many different types of crypts some mosses and Fissidens

This tank is a low tech place for my CRS. It used to have pressurized Co2 and all that jazz but IME CRS are much happier with nothing else being done to it. They are finicky creatures by nature so why try to make them angry? Since it is low tech plant choice is somewhat limited and I found that Crypts offer such a large variety of choices and are actually quite interesting plants. There is a piece of DW that I have had for a few years and it has had everything from Fissidens, mosses (flame/xmas/java) and whatever else you can think of attached to it. Well if you have ever had an old piece of DW you know that no matter what you do to it ( scrubbed and boiled this thing for over 2 hours twice!) something will remain and sprout back off of it. Right now I believe it has fissidens and peacock moss growing out of it.

My CRS are from some stock I purchased from a member about 2 years ago. The lived happily and became berried when they should have but the babies never survived for more then a couple of days. Over the next 6-8 months they all died except for three from what I believe was old age. As hard headed as I am I thought that because I have AS the shrimp would be just fine if I used my rock hard tap water for WC's. WRONG. So there were three left and I had to make a choice, either let them all die and go back to snowballs or quit being stupid and get a RO system that would not only make your shrimp happy but be great for your discus and your tanks with harder to make happy plants. I purchased this system and ever since then my shrimp have bounced back from the 3 and are now a happy and thriving colony that includes some beautiful S+, SS and even a couple SSS. More about these when I get home maybe. There are also 6 Corydoras Habrosus, 5 clithon coronas (4 bumble bee nerites and 1 black nerite).

I had a good amount of C.Parva in the front as I wanted this to be my foreground. It has been a long time and is filling in but you cannot hurry c.parva, it will only grow slower. I also purchased a package from a member a few months back that included c.wendtii (bronze I believe) and c.willisi x lucens. You will see that in the back right corner the willisi c lucens has gone pretty crazy and the bronze is the main focal point I believe.

About two months ago I purchased a C.Ideii from Aaront that was a gorgeous specimen. Of course it melted but after a month or so it came back and I now have 3. This was the plant that got my interest in crypts going.

A few weeks ago I got a C.Nurii from GG. It melted and has yet to return but Im hopeful.

Then just today I received a nice pack from Aaron that included
C.cordata'Thailand', C.noritoi, C.bangkanensis 'Dwarf', C.bangkanensis 'Giant',
C.zukalii, C.sp.'Kota Tingi', C.wendtii 'De Witt' and C.Becketii. These were just planted so please dont mind the cloudyness.

So here it is.


































Habrosus

















Coronas

















left









right









everything in between


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## bsmith

More pics.

you can see my crypt labeling system comprised of cutting a plastic document cover into strips and writing on them with a fine point sharpie.


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## legomaniac89

Nice species list you got there. I see some trading in our future


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## bsmith

legomaniac89 said:


> Nice species list you got there. I see some trading in our future


I love a good trade. Thats how I got these from Aaron, plus a little cash on my part. :

Couple of vids I took today.


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## bsmith

So I took the pre-filter off today as I always do on Mondays and the activity in the tank got really moving. Busted out the ole iP4 and snapped a few shots. Enjoy.


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## bsmith




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## bsmith

Some better pics (maybe not) with the P&S I take pics of vehicles with to put on the net. 









The Kota and ideii are similar looking in patterning. They are both beautiful IMO. 









You can see a new leaf coming out on the Kota Tingii









I believe the root sticking up is from the Nurii that melted. Hopefully something will come of it soon. 









Ideii









































This all came from a single 2 leaf plant about 3 months ago!









Just a random shot of the roaches!


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## matt12

those are some nice CRS you got there!!! you selling any lol


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## bsmith

Some pics of the crypt progression. As usual with these guys, slow and steady wins the race.

Idiee









Dewitt









Kota Tingii









Giant Bangkokanensis (SP?)









Zukali









Becketii









Dwarf Bangkokanenis (SP?)









Norotoi









This is the most exciting pic to me. I had a very small piece of the rhizome of my Nurii left and put it under the substrate in hopes of it sprouting and finally after 2+ months has shown some hint of growth!


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## bsmith

Thanks. I am always down fir a trade.


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## chad320

Any updates Brandon?


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## bsmith

Let's see. I traded one of my dewitts for a keii that melted bios coming back fine. I also took out the wendtii and most of the willisi x lucens to make room for spreading the others out. Lastly, I have given up on the Nurii making a come back, it isn't going to happen. 

In other news my wides bday came on Feb 22 and guess what she got? A Nikon D3100!!! Oh yes I'm good to go. Maybe I'll take it to work with me when I go back on Friday and try my hand at some proper pics. 

When I get back to work


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## chad320

I got a few extra large healthy nuriis hanging around if you got something good to trade?


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## bsmith

chad320 said:


> I got a few extra large healthy nuriis hanging around if you got something good to trade?


GG said he'd send me another so let me talk to him first and see whats doin' there. Are all of yours grown submersed? I don't have spathe envy so I try to keep all my crypts wet. 

I'm trying to think about which ones have propagated but sitting on my couch at home and not in my office in front of the tank is making it tough. I know my Moehlmanni split, Noroti has as well.

Do you have anything else of note?


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## chad320

I have some affinis, indonesia, and nurii up for trade in a thread on here. The affinis just hit the water 2-3 weeks ago so there is only one leaf to take a pic of on all of them. ill take all the pics you want or you could check my thread at TPT with some already on there. I am interested in your norotoi


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## bsmith

Sweet, I have been trying to get a hold of Affinis but looks like the majority of people who have it are over seas. 

Shoot me a PM and ill check out the thread over at TPT.


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## legomaniac89

Looking good! Put me on the list for the _C. noritoi_ and _C. "Kota Tingii"_ when you have some to spare


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## bsmith

Finally have some time to snap pics and post them up. Everything is doing great, slowly growing but not melting at least. Since last time I traded for an Affinis and a Keii I also received a new Nurii from GG to replace the one I had that melted and never came back do to inclement weather during shipping.


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## bsmith




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## looking4roselines

nice job dude. it looks like the c keei came back to life!


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## bsmith

I just took a video of the tank and in it you can see the cool new Pink rams horn I just got and a few of the Nerites I got too.


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## ddavila06

bsmith said:


> Hey what's mine us here and hers is mine. What I use it for is of no concern to her.
> 
> Your experience with the crypts is strange since all of the info I can gind says the ideii should be easier to grow than the Nurii.


i was really surpriced to see the crypt idee come back. luckily i didn't put anything where it was and is looking solid now 
the nurii are doing really well in one of my tanks, in the other one they were coverend in gunk and had a bad melt but are coming back :attention


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## bsmith

Some fresh shots.


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## bsmith

I have some really cool new additions! I finally aquired some Bucephalandra. this sp. is 'Kampit'!!!

FTS's

























Bucephalandra 'Kampit'

























C.Usteriana x walkeri

















C.Uenoi 'Sabal Kruin'

























C.Cordata Grabowski 'Pantu'

















And some Oldies but Goodies!!!

Kota Tingii









Nurii









Idiee









Keei









Affinis









Noritoi


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## bsmith

I am waiting for the dust to clear as I have some other ones that I cannot ID because the dang snails pulled up the ID tags. Hopefully they will be easy enough to identify...


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## ddavila06

lol, snails... plants look good!


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## bsmith

What about them?


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## ddavila06

you said they pulled the tags off...i thought that was funny =D


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## bsmith

They did dig them out, and when you have that many crypts in a tank this small and a few days does by it gets really hard trying to tell which tag came from which plant!


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## legomaniac89

First dibs on the _C. uenoi_ runners!


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## bsmith

legomaniac89 said:


> First dibs on the _C. uenoi_ runners!


You are first my friend. Do you have any idea on the unidentified identified crypts?


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## chad320

Im Second in line bro. Wow. That and the Kota tingi are fantastic looking!!!


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## Vadim S

bsmith said:


> ... Bucephalandra. this sp. is 'Kampit'!!!


maybe Kapit?


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## bsmith

Vadim S said:


> maybe Kapit?


Maybe, it was sold to me as 'kampit' unless I messed up. Ill double check and get back to you.


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