# Tales From the Crypt



## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Sometime last winter or spring, March I think, I found a rhizome in some old substrate in a small aquarium I was cleaning out. I threw it into a large pot I’ve been keeping with some of the large marsilea and some java fern. The roots of the ‘clover’ are all entwined with java moss and other than that there are just some rocks and small amount of old Flourite, just enough to keep the rocks from scratching the surface of the pot. I just tucked the rhizome under the matted roots. 

I keep that pot in the bathroom with a 26 watt spiral bulb in a metal clip light suspended over the top. I run an air tube into the pot just to keep the whole thing from becoming too anaerobic. The pot itself holds about 15 gallons of water. I usually keep it about half full so that the java moss on the large flat rock in the center is just at the surface. 

In the beginning of June I cleaned it up a bit and put it outside with a small fountain pump. I put a large round rock in the center so that it was a more solid mass. I figured the birds would assume this was perfect place to bathe and I wanted to make sure they didn’t topple things over. They did. I put one male and a small group of maybe six female Endler’s in there to help keep the rock entertained. 

About two weeks ago, the end of July or so, I took everything out of the pot and cleaned it. I rinsed it all in clean water and cut the marselia back to the roots, leaving just a few small fronds un-twirling. As I was putting it all back together I noticed for the first time the leaves of the cryptocoryne. 

I’m pretty sure it is a parva that I brought here in 1996 when we moved from Ca. I haven’t seen it in years. I’ve had it disappear before and return quite some time later when things were looking brighter but I don’t think it ever had to survive a period of desiccation before. I am not really sure how long that period was. There is some chance that it came from another aquarium I cleaned out at about the same time. I’m a little fuzzy on those details.

Anyway I am curious about this period of desiccation, if that is what it was. Anyone have any expertise on the ability of the rhizome to survive drought?


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

The raccoons, or a raccoon, attacked this blue pot last night. The plants were every which way but up, the pump was upset and even a piece of driftwood covered with java moss was stripped clean. I just fed the fish and they seem to have survived the ordeal. I placed a large, about ten inch round stone in the center of the pot and the fish hide around the bottom of it. I am happy to report the “parva’ was unscathed . I am not really sure what to do about the raccoons but it is only going to be a few more weeks before I have to bring all these plants and fish into the house anyway. 

I have another crypt. I believe it is ‘undulata’ ( the petioles are longer or perhaps about the same length as the leaves.) I originally planted a few of these in a pot, the kind you use for pond plants with a mesh type sides and bottom, filled with pea gravel, submerged in a 29 gallon tank with no substrate. I neglected this tank quite badly and just recently began reviving it. When I first began these plants were wholly green and badly chewed up by snails and such. After just a month or so they have begun to take on color again. I increased the light and started adding excel and pinch of Epson salt, no salt a few drops of fleet etc and doing 50% weekly water changes.

A few new plants had grown from the roots through the mesh and I cut these about a week ago and planted them in a pot of potting soil and put them outside in a galvanized container I use to grow a few emersed plants. Of course I didn’t really take into consideration that it has been in the 90s here with a relative humidity of about 10, so about two hours later when I checked the leaves had all shriveled and wilted. I cut the bottom off a plastic ‘Simply Lemonade” container a put it over the pot. Now about a week later I see new leaves are beginning to form. I am not really sure what I am going to do with these but I am thinking of growing them in a one gallon jar with a lid for the winter.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

The blue pot has a new crop of Endler’s fry. I’ve been setting up a number of small tanks in anticipation of the end of summer. The plan is to grow enough plants to fill the old acrylic 40 gal tank (maybe that is a 36 gal I forget) and then you know big fish eat small fish and all that. 

The crypt roots I planted in the potting soil with the half lemonade bottle lid have all now sent up leaves. The only problem I am having is keeping the leaves off the plastic container. I may need to transplant these much sooner than I anticipated, or perhaps figure out another method. They are growing in the shade on the north side of the house right now so it shouldn’t be too hard to provide some light. 

In the mean time I am about to cut all the old green leaves off the ‘undulata’ growing in the basket in the 29 gallon tank. I need to decide whether to do this at the same time I repot them. That tank hasn’t had a substrate in three or four years. There is a bunch of old wood in there that has been in water for about 20 years, tons of Java fern and some elodea. I have been thinking I would just keep the crypt in a larger basket. I am hesitant to put a substrate in that tank because it is so easy to clean. Periodically I just remove everything in there and clean it. 

Maybe I should just turn the acrylic tank into a crypt crib?


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

We need some pxs man! All this description makes me want to see too!  Sorry about the raccoons. Michael has a similar issue in his yard.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Well Ms Gal nice of you to stop by. I was planning on getting around to some pictures but that involves determining how exactly that is done. Let’s see if I can do that first. Okay so now I attached a picture of my Irises I don't know where that even goes. 

Anyway I have seen your tank with the newly hung light and all and I have nothing that compares. I have 7 aquariums and I only every paid for the two used 2.5 gallon ones, nothing fancy at all. Five of them have water in them right now. All of them have weeds. I use what I can find and I use what is cheap. I've never used co2 but I am in the process of buying the parts right now. 

I'll try and borrow my daughters camera and see if I can figure that part out. Thanks again for stopping by.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

The Blue Pot.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Crypts.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Galvanized grow tin, Retro and Anubius coffeefolia.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

I cleaned the blue pot and began removing things for the winter to come. I put the ‘parva’ in a pot and put in the grow tin for now. I started wondering if this plant is actually ‘parva’. Time will tell I guess. I cut all the old green leaves off the ‘undulata’ growing in the 29. ( I suppose I am not really sure about that one either.)
I cleaned out a ten gallon and now I am preparing it to become an emersed set up for the winter. I am not sure what I am going to use for a substrate. Pots and potting soil maybe? I just don’t want this tank to become anaerobic in the house this winter. Add a little charcoal perhaps. 
I have been messing around with a bit of coir. I’m not sure I like this stuff though it does look good as a topping in the terrarium. I may add some to this substrate mix. Potting soil, coir, and pea gravel is a mix I have been trying out recently.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

I received a specimen of the beautiful C nurii on Friday. I planted it in a tank I recently started to grow out some Eleocharis. That tank has a potting soil base with a washed play sand cap. Right now I am using a clip on shop light with a 26 watt bulb.
After a month of 90 degree days the night time temperatures started to drop into the 50s. (Thankfully) Caution made me take down the blue pot for the season and bring all that stuff into the house. I have it all in a five gallon paint bucket right now. (Endless Endler’s Emergency Evacutaion)
The other potted crypts are doing very well. (Why are the new leaves on these that are growing emersed green and not colored like the new leaves on the plants growing under water?) I guess I had better start making a home for them inside as well. I need to figure out the minimal temperatures for these things. Is 65 too cold?


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## londonloco (Sep 25, 2005)

subscribed, but I can't see any pics!


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

APC has been moved to a new server, and there seem to be more glitches than usual for such a move. All thumbnail pictures no longer show. The tech people have been informed of this, and they will get to it, but probably not until after Labor Day. Links to pictures stored somewhere else appear to work.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

Hey Loco,
I had figured the stolen pictures were due to either a rather complicated criminal conspiracy or my own lack of technological wizardry but apparently the movers lost them. Thanks for stopping by. My informants suggest you have a bit of experience with Endler’s colonies. 
All the former residents of the blue pot are now settled in another blue pot in the living room for the time being. ( I bought both these pots in the middle of the winter when they were clearance items, along with a pump and a few plants. )
I put a layer of pea gravel then a mixture of potting soil, garden soil and coir, (not much really) and then a topping of washed play sand in an old ten gallon tank yesterday. Into that I planted most of the plants from the grow tin. I left the crypts in their pots and just planted the whole pot in the substrate. I have a new tight lid for that tank ( I stepped on the old one) and I stuck an old fluorescent light on top for now. The water level is about an inch above the substrate. I may need to raise it, we’ll see. I still need to figure out how to circulate the water to keep things from becoming too anaerobic.


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## londonloco (Sep 25, 2005)

I did have a large endler colony I've sustained for over 18 months, I say "did" because numbers have dwindled with an outside tub experiment that didn't go well this summer, epic fail comes to mind . What I have left is in a 20g long, hoping to increase numbers again.

I suscribed to this thread because I really like "jar" or in this case "pot" projects. I have one 2.5g jar, that sits on top of our community laptop table. It has one anubius tied to a rock that has gone from 5 leaves to literally 15 leaves in less than 2 years. I keep a betta (male or female, depending on what I have on hand) in the summer months and white cloud minnows in the winter months in it. I change 90% of the water once a week, I wipe off of the leaves with a paper towel on WC day. It has no light, just ambient room light, which includes a sky light 20 feet above the table. 

I'm hoping those pics eventually show up, I'd like to see them.


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## BruceF (Aug 5, 2011)

I am sure your imagination is better than the pictures. 

I used to have a large 10 gallon lab jar. I kept a betta in it and just used an air stone, without a light near a window. The tricky part was actually the winter sun coming directly in the window. Originally I did daily water changes but I came to prefer the air stone. Unfortunately I broke it. 
Now I have two 2.5 gallon jars with lids that I use as terrariums. I have been growing mosses in one, not aquatic. The other one I am using right now to try and grow some African violets from leaves. . 
The ceramic pots just reminded me of pictures I saw years ago of betta farms in Asia. They are like little pools of water. They are great for emersed plants and the fish in them are always a surprise to people. 
You’ll have to post a picture of your jar.


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