# c. parva propagating



## wearsbunnyslippers

hi all,

i have been looking through amano's books and i found a layout where he uses c. parva as a carpet.

i have some c. parva already and was wondering what would be the quickest way besides tissue culture to get this to grow into a hundred little plantlets or so. immersed or emersed? high light low light etc.?


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## Chuukus

They would likely grow faster In a high humidity setup growing in pots of peat or aquasoil. If your growing them underwater right now it would take up to a month or two to trasfer from submersed to emersed but once they get acclimated they should take off. I would plant them in pots of aquasoil and laterite in a high humidity setup the water should come about 3/4 the height of the pot. 12 to 14 hour photoperiod on a timer.


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## bigstick120

This is an interesting plant, I have had this as a carpet before, take a long time. 

I also have it in an emersed setup, for about 1.5 years, Ive had to thin in in my tanks much more often. Ive thinned the emersed pot 1 once in the time Ive had it going.
If you want to grow some out, do it underwater in my experience. Both of which take a pretty long time.


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## Zezmo

I have been growing parva fow a few years. I did not care for it emersed. Maybe it was where I planted it in my paludarium. But it did not thrive in there. 
Submersed, Parva likes high light, CO2 etc. Also, like most crypts it likes to be left alone. There will be a settling period after replanting this one.

The first time I used it in a forground, was in my nano tank. That was 4x 13w CF lights over an 8 gallon nano cube. About 9" deep water. Plus CO2. That tank grew the heck out of the parva. It has Eco Complete as a substrate.

Feb-06: Started with 3 plants of parva. I bought them on my first visit to aquaforest. I also bought my ADA nano CO2 that day. Now years later, George and Steve always ask me how it is doing every time I visit them.









8 months later, I harvested over 100 plants:

















Later in 2007, I set up an ADA 60p Mist. This tank is at work, so I wanted a nice forground, that could go for years without major trimming or replanting.

I started with 30 plants, and 48w of T5ho lighting. Here it is right after planting in Sept of 07:









Two months later, the parva had settled in nicely. Soon after that I changed to 130w of CF lighting (over 17g, about 12inch deep water) nov-07:









A year later in Nov-08, it had filled in nicely. Ignore the BBA, I let my CO2 run dry, that was soon gone.









18 months later, May-09, it has become quite thick. 









Now, it is just a thick mass several plant layerys thick. A great place for my baby shrimp to thrive.









This year I also tried a tissue culture of it. That grew very fast. But the resulting mass was just a ball that could not be separated into individual plants. I ended up cutting it into quarters and planting those. They setted in grew quite fast for a while. They quickly caught up to the size of plants that were already in that tank, the other parva had been in there about a year. Interestingly enough some of the leaves are coming in red. We will see if that proves stable over time. The nano cube is no longer extreme light, it just has an 18w cf light nowadays.










Can you tell the 3 month old tissue cultures from the year old regular ones?


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## wearsbunnyslippers

@zezmo - can you explain the process you used for tissue culturing?


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## NeonFlux

Interesting, it's been months for my parva; they too, are growing thicker. It's truly a nice plant, but it grows slow; which is fine by all means for me.


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## Zezmo

> @zezmo - can you explain the process you used for tissue culturing?


http://www.kitchenculturekit.com/index.htm

;-)


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## wearsbunnyslippers

thanks zezmo!


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## Tex Gal

Root tabs also help it to grow faster. It's just not a fast grower IMO. Zezmo - your batch looks amazing! It's rare to see it multiply that fast.


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## CraigThor

Yep 2 months ago I planted 18 pots of Parva from Fan. Lost about 1/3rd of it in transition and am just now starting to see new growth come in from the remaining Parva. This is in my Riparium that has CO2 injection and 3 70 watt metal halides so it is closer to low light. In the long run hoping for a great carpet even if it takes 18 months!


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## Dryn

I had about the same experience. It grew horribly in my vivarium, grew only okay in my emersed Crypt. setup, and grew spectacularly in my submersed setup. I kept them in the tanks for about two years under the same soil, water, and light parameters (granted the effect was differet for each setup). The submersed setup had about 10wpg and the leaves took on an outstanding mottled brown/green pattern.


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## ddavila06

in my 75 adding iron defenitly made a diference! medium light no co2 and eco substrate. about one year and they did nothing, but then i started dumping iron in and started taking off!!!


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