Sir_BlackhOle

Some of the leaves are turning brown....even some of the smaller newer leaves. It this supposed to happen or is the plant dying? Help!

EDGE

Under high light, wendtii will turn brown/bronze. A few other varieties of crypt exhibit similar behavior.

dennis

Well, in my experience it could mean that either you have a specie with a tendency to have that color of leaf of you have it in a high light situation. Probably both. he problem with the average crypt bought at a lfs is that they are often C. wndtii. I seems that wendtii has becoem a catch all or rather there are so many varieties or palnt that are all basically hte same that it is hard ot tell the difference. Often the appearance of these plants, as wiht many types of plants, is based largely on their enviroment.

I would not worry to much. if their is a problem, crypts tend to melt so fast that you will know tomorrow. The leaves deteriorate expreemly quickly when they die. Is this a new aquisition or one you haev had for a while? Often new plants will melt a bit, due to the change of enviroment, but generally they will come back.

Art_Giacosa

Can't say it any better than Dennis did. Don't worry about it. Wendtii changes the color and texture of its leaves in response to changes in its environment.

Sir_BlackhOle

OK good. I have had it for a week or two now. Lighting is 2 watts per gallon flourescent. It hasnt melted yet so I guess that means it is doing well

Thanks!

dennis

Does it look like this? Please excuse the gravel, its Carolyn's tank. It is under 1.6 wpg of t5 florescent (5.5 gallon) there are no ferts arred to the tank but I am sure that NO3 gets high. Same wiht P. Ironically, there is no algae. This is a wendtii but it seems to have this nice rust brown color. I really like this one. I notice that some of the wndtiis in my tank are starting ot turn back to this color. I know they got stunted for a while when I had an algae battle, redid my lighting and moved them around. The color starts at where the stem meats the leaf and slowly works its way to the tip. In my tank that is with 3 wpg and most ferts.

Sir_BlackhOle

Yes it does look very much like that. I will post a pic up tonight after work. Thanks!

Sir_BlackhOle

Here it is

Attached Thumbnails

 

dennis

It is a little hard to tell but are he bigger, older leaves dying. If so then it is jsut melting. Nothing to wory about because the new small green leaves at the bottom prove it is still alive. there are two things you could do to help it more though. One, once you palce it don't move it. It takes crypts a while to adjust to their surroundings and every time you move themit sets them back a bit. Two, make sure its feet are well fertalized. If you are using a plant gravel liek eco or flourite then it should be fine. If not hen you could add a root tab with iron, or part of a root tab below the roots of the plant. This alsomakes it important not to move it. I would try the seachem root tabs. I don't really go for the whole jobes sticks and things. They can work good, but do you really want o experiment righ tnow? Also, a slow release root tablet would be best for use in your larger size gravel. Less of the fert would get into the water column that way.

dennis

Sorry. Forget the commit about the gravel. I was thinking you had something else I wish you could edit your posts. Guess I need to start proofreading better.