# Help with confirming Philippine Crypts



## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

Hi.

im from the Philippines. can you please help me with the identification of crypts that are commonly found at the local LFS.. Sorry for the crappy pictures.

this is called the 'red crinkle' locally. is it C. usteriana?


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

Cryptocoryne pygmaea?


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

http://images.aquaria.net/plants/Cryptocoryne/u/UST/

http://images.aquaria.net/plants/Cryptocoryne/p/PYG/submersed/

Here's pics of both. UST is pretty unmistakable. PYG looks like a tiny brown wendtii.


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

thanks for the reply.

It is getting confusing.. the crypt. (first 3 pictures) i have looks like the morco variety under the wild heading.. it looks like the picture when i got the crypts from the LFS in the submersed form. as for the other varieties of usteriana, they look like Crypt. aponogetifolia i have also. i guess i really have to wait for flowers to come out to confirm things.


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

I haven't been able to see the pics so far - they suddenly started working. Photobuckets DNS is flakey at best it seems.

To be honest they don't look like Usteriana to me. Theyre big rigorous plants with bullate leaves, a magenta underside and a leathy olive green leaf. What you have sorta looks like brown wendtii to me.

Have you looked for the plant in the wild?


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

hmm.. you maybe right. i havent collected it in the wild but the guys where i bought it from says it is collected from the wild in the Bicol provinces which is like a 10 hour drive from Manila. this plant have large submersed leaves. i will get some and take pictures of the submersed form. the Crypt. aponogetifolia i got was from there also.


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

That sounds pretty cool if we can see pics of the wild plants. It'd be great if you could find a flowering spathe, too.

Can we get the name of the closest city so we can stick a pin in the (google) map there? Not too specific so the site gets raped, but enough to give us an idea.

It's an interesting looking plant. I sorta get the impression it's trying to make big leaves.

Keep in mind, C. coronata is found there too and looks a lot like (a smaller) usteriana, it has an aponogetifolia-like spath though.

But again, there are 4 known different forms of UST so its also entirely likely there are other forms too.


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

i do not have exact details and the Bicol region is composed of 4 provinces with 5 or more cities.. anyway i will try to ask for details. it is almost always available from where i get it. its like a flea market with around 30+ stalls selling stuff from corals to iguanas to chihuahuas. 

the leaves are way bigger when i get the submersed plants and some of the leaves are bullated and reddish to copper colored.


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

What color is the underside of the leaf?

When I got mine directly from Mr. Morco the wild plants were not bullate, but in a tank, submerged, they always are.


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

the color of the undersides are pretty variable also.. its from fleshy-red to reddish copper. i will take pictures as soon as i get the camera back.

i just came from the 'aqua flea market' and while going through a pile of plants i saw this bunch of cypts that i havent seen sold there before. i got the whole bunch and im trying to identify it now.


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

Sounds good. Are you growing them emerse or submersed? They seem to grow better submersed IMO.


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

i have not had success growing them submersed right after i buy it from the store. most plants available have shown signs of melt and are generally not in good condition. im trying to grow it emersed first then submersed after a while.


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## Crispino Ramos (Mar 21, 2008)

Are the Philippine crypts becoming endangered species?


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

I don't think they're in any trouble.

They will probably melt, but as long as they're putting up new leaves they'll do fine.

I got a small runner from Kai with one leaf. I stuck it in a tank and within a few months it was huge and had sent out many runners.

I got the plant in, I think, May 07. Heres pics:

http://images.aquaria.net/tanks/rjs/tk-1/2007/


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

Crispino Ramos said:


> Are the Philippine crypts becoming endangered species?


not that i know of.. but if they are getting it from the wild i am pretty much sure that at the rate they are harvesting it, it is unsustainable unless some enterprising fellow has grown it in a farm.


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

rs79,

nice going on the plant recovery. what substrate did you use? water parameters and lighting?


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

Tap water, hard as hell. Substrate is a 10 year old tank with beach sand and manure, clay and washers under the sand. Lighting was 40W over a 20 gal tank, I did fertilize with home made aquatic plant fertilizer and usually added flourish excel or yeast Co2 although the carbon addition was sporadic.


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