# Crypt melt & Rebirth



## DogFish2.0

What has been you experience with crypt melt? How long has it taken for new growth? At what point to do you feel the plant will not survive?

Thank you,
Frank


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## ddavila06

my experience so far so good =)
my ideii i lost like 3 times, the last one i honestly forgot where i planted and gave it for dead until after rescaping/trimming one day and saw the darn plant alive again!!

i jsut lost my zukalli and xpurpurea that i traded a few weeks ago, both plants are sprouting new growth now, thankfully. 

i also had one completely melt that i purchased as grown emersed..new leaves are coming out now also 

i think as long as the roots look healthy they will come back =)


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## DogFish2.0

I'm trying to keep the faith got a few I really would like to see come back from the grave. They went zombie on me about 3 wks now.


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## bigstick120

I have had some take several months to come back. I just found one for about 4 months ago that I forgot about. I was a tiny plantlet under some Rosenvirg that I was pulling. It was pretty shaded but I though I lost it for sure.


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## gladiator008

is is true my crypts came back after a week no co2 from outside sources just the fish and liquid fert..


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## 954baby

It's hard to say when it comes to melt. The more hardy species like C. wendtii come back really fast and the more delicate species can take a while. I have a few crypts that pretty much don't grow at all and they have been that way for years.


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## looking4roselines

I had a crypt that melted completely with a piece of rhizome remaining. The remaing rhizome was placed on a bed of moist sphagnum moss inside a sealed jar. About a week later, there was a little side shoot


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## looking4roselines

Here is the plant I was referring to. It melted from the crown:


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## wabisabi

Dog-I think as long as the rhizome is still viable (not melted) then there is always a chance it can come back. 

Xue- is that melted crypt C. pallidinervia? Or perhaps C. cordata var zonata? Or C. cordata var diderici!?


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## looking4roselines

It was an unidentified crypt from lingga


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## bsmith

In a submersed setup it can take a month or longer for some of the slower growing/less hardy varieties in a low tech setting. 

Like posted above as long as their is a rhizome the plant will more than likely come back. Now this does present a problem as if you go rummaging around in the substrate trying to find a rhizome you can make the plant angry and actually cause it to melt more and even die all the way.

So if you have had a crypt melt try to leave everything alone for a month or two before you go digging around.


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## DogFish2.0

I 've had a C. Rosainberg that was in limbo in my emersed tank for months. When I got it, it had two full sized leaves. It dropped one after a month. The second hung on eventually dropping. The stem end & rhizome were solid. So I left them. A month later still no change.

A few pages back Xue was talking about using sphagnum moss in a jar to revive a dormant crypt. Not having any sphagnum I substituted Oak Leave litter & just a sprinkle of MTS, enough to hold it all together. Basically, a "forrest floor" mix.I set this up the day that Xue posted on this site.

Here we are today!!!










I'll be transplanting it into MTS.


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## lbacha

Rhizomes are actually designed to allow plants to weather bad conditions and store the nutrients and moisture needed to revive when the condisions change, you see this with a lot of house plants like alacosia I have a few that people were pitching for dead but in reality the humidity dropped too low in te winter and they went dormant, the plant was fine and when I replanted and put it in an area with good conditions it sproughted new leaves and they are great plants. Crypts are te same rhizomes allow them to survive dry seasons that might otherwise kill off a plant if they ha no way to shall we say hibernate, the first thing they will grow back are their roots (need to get nutrients to grow leaves) then the leaves will appear so don't be surprised if the leaves take a while. I have heard that some people trim all the leads off their new crypts because it allows to plant to use all it's energy developing roots instead of trying to keep leaves alive. Hope this helps and as long as you have a healthy rhizome you will end up with a nice plant after some tender care. 

Len


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## 954baby

I used the suggestion I found here in the forum to put leaves that have been soaked in water at the base of the plants on the top of the substrate (for emersed growth only). I found a good oak tree forest and found a nice area with tons of leaf litter. I dug through 8-10 inches of leaves to get to the good stuff. So far I've been able to recover a few plants (ideii, a few cordata species, purpurea, minima, and zukallii). They perk right up in the coming weeks. I heard the breakdown of the leaf littler gives off CO2 and also it may alter the soil chemistry in a favorable condition. I've heard you can get stuff from the hydroponic store that promotes the uptake of nutrients via mycorrhizae. I am going to get some from the store next time I'm there.


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## Mr. Fish

My crypt wendtii red was doing fine until I upgraded to high light, start dosing Excell and pressurized Co2.. Thought the darn thing was gonna start growing like the weeds in my back yard.

I suspect the Excell for melting it


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## Seattle_Aquarist

Hi Mr. Fish,

Some crypt species are just temperamental, I dose Excel and have no problems but if I remove them from the tank or drastically change the conditions they are not happy.


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