# Crypt Rot



## fishfan (Feb 19, 2006)

I wanted to ask if the following is normal for crypts. I have two crypt. wendtiis that melted after a recent move and now after about three months the crypts have grown back but at half the size. Before they melted the crypts. were almost at the surface of the tank but now don't seem to be growing tall. Does it really take this long for crypts to grow out or in other words grow back?
(I should probably note that I have a low lighted tank).


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

This is mostly theory based on what I've seen for a couple of decades but this is what I think.

Yeah sometimes they grow back very slowly. But they do always seem to some back.

Plants, all plants *tend* to be symetrical with respect to roots and leaves. That is big leaves mean big roots.

When crypts die back, which they do when there's an environmental change, not only do some of the leaves die but but some of the roots do too.

You can grow a new plant from a piece of a root, but not a piece of a leaf. In this sense the roots are more important than the leaves - to the plants, we of course have the opposite opinion.

So I think what happens is the roots are building up slowly and over time the plant will be as big as it was before, but right now there's as mush effort into building up the rhizome and runners as there is with the leaves.

And it's not like crypts grow quickly in the first place.

To paraphrase the old maxim: "a watched Crypt never grows".


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