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I have decided that crypts are the coolest aquatic plants ever!
I've recently been replanting my 30 gallon community tank, and instead of going with lots of hygro and java ferns on a HUGE piece of driftwood stuck in the middle of my tank, I'm removing the huge piece of driftwood altogether, as well as the hygro, and I'm using mostly crypts, a sword here and there, and filling in the spaces with bunch plants like ludwigia and rotala, and a little bit of scarlet temple if I can get it to thrive...
Crypts come in so many varieties with so many different leaf shapes and colors, and best of all, I havn't had any luck killing them yet! Other bonuses are that most varieties don't require a ton of light, and while they'll grow more slowly without CO2 injection, they don't really need it at all. I have tall C. spiralis, and C. crispatula/balansae in the back, and short little C. wendtii, c. petchii, and a unique c. wendtii "Mi Oya" in the foreground. When I got all these plants, they looked pretty rough. They were all tied in bunches and their roots were all tangled together in a near-solid mass with melting leaves leaving slimy clumps all over the place. I rinsed them off, and I was lucky if most of the plants were left with two intact leaves, and I Just cut the roots to about an inch long in order to seperate them. These poor crypts looked sad, and since I'd been stupid and ordered the plants before I was ready to actually plant them, they had to sit in a bucket of room temperature water for several days before I could do anything with them to make them happy.
Well, the planting day finally came, and I was amazed when I took the crypts out of the bucket to see that most of them had started developing offshoots with new little plantlets forming, and new leaves sprouting from the rosette already! I have them all planted now, and the leaves are clearly much stronger after a few days, and those tiny plantlets are peeking up out of the substrate. Clearly, it will be no time at all before I have a neat little multi-colored carpet of crypts in the foregrouond of my tank, and a tall wavy forest in the back.

The moral of this rambling story is, "If you abuse your crypts horribly, they will reward you."

Or something like that...

In other news, I think Java ferns are some of the stupidest plants ever... As I mentioned before, I had a huge piece of driftwood with java ferns all over it. Well, they had started to die off and were having algae problems, so I just took it all out. Well, as I started removing the ferns from the wood, I realized why they were dying... Their root systems had completely smothered the rhizomes! The stupid plants comitted suicide! How huge masses of these things manage to survive in nature is beyond me. I will say this for them, though, they are persistent where their survival is concerned, as many of the dying leaves had sprouted tons of little baby java ferns in a last-ditch effort to propagate before the end. So even though I lost the majority of my main plants, I now have twice as many little plantlets... I will have to remember to space them out more in the future.

Does anybody else have favorite or least favorite plant stories?

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

illustrae,

What a wonderful story

Although I have to say that you probably enraged the entire Java Fern community here .

My favorite plants change over time and only one so far has managed to be in the top 3 for more than a few months: Xmas Moss. Although it is a pain to trim (if you cannot remove its base from the tank while doing so) it grows very nicely in all 3 of my tanks.

Another favorite is my Rotala Macandra in my high tech tank, I love its red color.

A plant that I used to like a lot was my Glosso, until it recently start to die on me because of overpopulation. What a pain to trim this plant. Also, any Egeria is off my list, it melts away during my Excel - Kill Algae - treatments.

Oh, and my Anubias Barteri and Nana are also top, as they give me many flowers to admire.

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

The stupid plants comitted suicide!

I have to agree with you on crypts. My first attempt at a planted tank from scratch (not converting from plastic/silk) is my 20g. I hadn't done much research and the lighting is only a 20 watt flouro but the crypts have done amazingly well! Many C. wendtii in the background and center, the foreground is almost a carpet of C. parva.

I also have a small tank with incandescent lighting where C. balanase and C. undulata are growing quite well.

Anubias will always be a favorite...inspired by Keith I re-did my 20g into an all Anubias tank and I absolutely love the look

And I have an Aponogeton boivinianus that I grew from a bulb...again at a time when I knew zero about plants so I'm quite proud of that



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There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Hey Theresa, would you mind posting a pic of that anubias tank? I'd love to see it (Also an update on Junior and any Junior jr.'s )

As LF noted, favorites seem hard to settle on, I have a lot of favorites. Right now I'm quite high on rotala indica, great color, nice fullness, nice growth rate.

I can say my least favorite, and that is hygro polysperma. It was, is, and always shall be a weed Grows too darn fast, a real pain to give it any form. Entangles itself and chokes off other nearby plants if you give it the slightest leeway.

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Back in the saddle!

I also love crypts but I've only kept C. wendtii red. This plant is so pretty. I have ordered some C. retrospiralis for the background of my 55g and more C. wendtiis. I will probably try C. belansae soon also..when I find somewhere to put them. In the future if I have say a 20L I will probably do all crypts. I also think this is a great plant.
A story I have is that the C. wendtii reds in my 10g started melting all of a sudden. I was worried and checked the water only to find out that I had 3ppm of ammonia. Well the melted all the way but I left them in there and a couple weeks later, after the ammonia was down, the started coming back. Those are tough plants.
I am sad because the crypts in my 55g are slowly losing leaves. I have a huge algae outbreak and can't seem to get rid of it. Most of my plants have already died. The crypts seem to be trying to hold on...hopefully I can save them.

*Kristin*

Crypts are amazing plants and have a huge range of shapes sizes and colors. Definately will always have a place for crypts.

Anubias are a favorite due to their beauty, ease of use and sheer versatility.

Always had a soft spot for Swords but unfortunately most get too big for the average tank.

For stem plants I really like my Hygrophilia Augustifolia. I've had forever. One of the first plants I ever bought and still going strong, in every kind of tank set up I've ever had.Very elegant long leaves, produces side shoots for fun so gets real branchy and tree like in no time. Very easy to grow. But it does get big, the leaves are easily 6-7" long so needs a biggish tank.

Plants I hate? I think Densa and Hornwort are just monstrously ugly weeds that would never be allowed within a 100 feet of one of my tanks. I'd rather grow algae then them. Water Sprite I find to be a real PITA.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.