# Banned Crypts in Texas



## BobAlston (Jan 23, 2004)

The following crypts are being banned in Texas.

The following two based on TPWD's analysis of their invasiveness
C. Wendti
C. beckettii

the following because they have not been evaluated and are not on the white list. By default they are being banned by statute:

C. alba
C. annamica
C. aponogetifolia
C. auriculata
C. bogneri
C. bullosa
C. cognata
C. consobrina
C. coronata
C. cruddasiana
C. decus-silvae
C. dewitii
C. edithiae
C. elliptica
C. ferruginea
C. fusca
C. ideii
C. jacobsenii
C. keei
C. minima
C. nevillii
C. pallidinervia
C. Xpurpurea nothovar. borneoensis
C. Xpurpurea nothovar. purpurea
C. pygmaea
C. schulzei
C. scurrilis
C. sivadasanii
C. Xtimahensis
C. uenoi
C. usteriana
C. vietnamensis
C. Xwillisii
C. versteegii
C. yujii
C. zukalii

See this link for more information

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/exotic/aquatic_plants/

Bob


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## doubleott05 (Jul 20, 2005)

crap i say.


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 19, 2008)

Can't say I've ever thought of Crypts as invasive...


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## ddavila06 (Jan 31, 2009)

sorry texans...man that suxs...


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## Angry the Clown (Aug 26, 2006)

C. usteriana is now on the approved list. 

I don't see C. crispatula (any varietal) anywhere.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Gahanzafar will have to move!


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## Cvurb (May 23, 2010)

That is horrible, but I must say I'm impressed by the list...


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## 954baby (Feb 8, 2008)

I just don't see any lakes being over run by C. wendtii, if you do see this PM me the address =)


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

C. wendtii got established in a pool at the beginning of a small spring feeding into the Rainbow River, in Rainbow Springs State Park, Florida. According to Jan Bastmeijer, who did some research on the escape, it is likely that the plants were released from an aquarium kept by a private zoo that went out of business shortly after Disneyland got established. When they closed down, they apparently dumped the aquarium into the nearby pool. On Tom Barr's Plantfest trip in 2004 we got to see the pool. The Florida DNR, as of 2004, had plans to kill the plants by covering the pool with a rubber sheet that would cut out all the light. 








These plants did not look particularly healthy.









C. beckettii got established in the San Marcos River by a commercial aquatic plant grower and wholesaler who cultivated them in the river. When Steve Pituch and I took a trip down the river we found them several miles downstream of the origin of the river and of the half mile stretch where the endangered Texas wild rice grows. Nonetheless, the TPWD considered them a threat to the rice plants and they were in the process of removing them with the use of a small dredging apparatus and a diver to pull them up. I believe i heard that they claim they got them all, but I doubt it because, as we proceeded down the river, the crypts disappeared into the deeper water from the Cummings Dam backup. It is hard to imagine how they could found them all, especially because the act of pulling them up undoubtedly released small pieces of rhizomes that got carried away in the current. 
C. beckettii bed in the shallows








Look at the size of those plants!


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Once again both releases were done by commercial establishments. I also wonder if, at the time these plants weren't on the black list, whether federal or state. The wendtii is in FL not TX and they have't over reacted and proposed what TX has done. There are many plants that have become part of the US agriculture that weree even brought in by Gov. I guess we really don't think this through. Just because it changes the landscape- is that bad? How many of us have "naturally" landscaped yards, cities, towns, etc. Yet that is fine with everybody. What truly is the goal and at what cost? How would our lives change if we followed this to its natural conclusion. None of us would even be eating or growing tomatoes!


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

I'm confused so are all crypts out lawed in texas now.

what about 
parva and lutea?


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## Angry the Clown (Aug 26, 2006)

Crypts on the approved list so far:

Cryptocoryne affinis Prolific cryptocoryne 
Cryptocoryne albida Albida crypt 
Cryptocoryne ciliata 
Cryptocoryne lingua 
Cryptocoryne longicauda 
Cryptocoryne lucens May be a natural hybird 
Cryptocoryne moehlmannii Moehlmannii crypt 
Cryptocoryne nurii Nuri crypt 
Cryptocoryne parva Tiny cryptocoryne, Dwarf cryptocoryne 
Cryptocoryne petchii Micro crypt 
Cryptocoryne pontederifolia 
Cryptocoryne retrospiralis Retro crypt 
Cryptocoryne spiralis Spiral water trumpet 
Cryptocoryne undulata Broadleaf watertrumpet, Undulated crypt 
Cryptocoryne walkeri / C. lutea

Cryptocoryne striolata* 
Cryptocoryne tonkinesis* 
Cryptocoryne usteriana* 
Cryptocoryne villosa*

pasted from: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/exotic/aquatic_plants/proposed_list.phtml


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

YAY then I know of some one who doesn't have to get read of his crypts then.


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## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

I know of two places with _Cryptocoryne wendtii _in Europe, both at thermal springs. The place I know best (Austria) also has _C. crispatula var. balansae_ (and _Hygrophyla, Shinnersia_ and _Vallisneria_), I placed pictures online in a fish-forum: http://www.cichlidae.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=83&t=4823

But I wonder: is _wendtii_ not just more successfull because it's the most commonly sold Crypt? And how sensible is it to ban species which can only be successfull very locally (at thermal springs, where nearly any aquarium plant can become problematic)? Another approach would be to place information plates at thermal springs and have local people patrolling there and removing any "newly introduced" aquarium plants. And then worry about plant species that can invade wider areas in the local climate.

Of course this is a clear indication that Crypts are potentially very problematic in tropical countries. So a ban in tropical countries would be sensible in this respect ....


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Both the Rainbow River in Florida and the San Marcos River in Texas come out of the ground. They are not warmed to my knowledge, but they come out at around 70 degrees F. year around. They both are high in dissolved limestone and CO2. These spring-fed rivers and streams always are loaded with thriving aquatic plants that benefit from the high CO2 levels and probably also from nutrients. The water has percolated through soil and may have been traveling in underground aquifers for many years. The plants are getting first crack, so to speak, at the nutrients in the water. I brought my LaMotte kits to the San Marcos, and I could not find measurable nitrate, phosphorus or potassium but there was clearly enough to support a thriving population of plants.


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## illustrator (Jul 18, 2010)

A "thermal spring" is a place where warm groundwater comes out of the ground, naturally. So we are talking about the same thing.


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

I guess I was thinking that thermal meant hot springs, warmed not by just the normal temperature of the aquifer, but by hot lava.


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