travis

I've been growing Cryptocorynes emerged in a shallow (6" height) tank for about six months now, using sunlight from a south-facing window. Some H. sibthorpioides was allowed to grow wild as well and has formed a fairly thick ground cover. I've gotten spathes from C. cordata var cordata 'blassii' and C. wendtii 'Green Gecko'. I will be adding C. nurii in the near future. I apologize for the poor picture quality as I am using my cell phone until I get a new camera.



C. cordata var cordata 'blassii' spathe:



C. wendtii 'Green Gecko' spathe:

hooha

where can you get a 6 inch tank??

that's a great setup, cheap low maintainence, and quite visually striking. Can you review your setup, (substrate, lighting, progress and growth, etc)?

travis

I got the tank from a reef store that had used it to display corals. Turns out to work well for growing emergent aquatic plants, too.

Thanks hooha. I can't remember the exact mixture of the substrate but I used a mix of bonsai soil (lots of fracted clay), worm castings, peat, and a little vermiculite. Lighting is sunlight from a south-facing window so it varies seasonally but I seem to be getting a lot more spathe formation recently than I did in the winter so it is possible that the longer photoperiod is a factor.

Progress was quite slow for the first 5-6 weeks for the Crypts (C. wendtii 'Green Gecko', C. cordata var cordata 'blassii', C. parva, and C. petchii) but has stabilized in the last three months or so. I had some initial issues with keeping the humidity stable but things have improved noticeably since I resolved them. Growth rate is still quite slow compared to the submersed growth that I am familiar with from these species.

The H. sibthorpioides was a major surprise. I threw it in the tank as an afterthought. I have had excellent luck flowering H. verticillata emerged so I was curious to see H. sibthorpioides flower. It has gone nuts in this tank and has formed a very nice ground cover, but not thick enough to choke out the Crypts. It is flowering heavily. I'll try to get a picture but my camera is not good at close ups and the blooms are very small.

I just counted four new C. wendtii 'Green Gecko' spathes this morning so I should have more photos to post soon.

mudboots

[quote=hooha;478268]where can you get a 6 inch tank??


Hooha, check out glasscages.com. They have tanks of every size you can imagine, and will even custom build if they don't. They've got the 6 inchers in many shapes and sizes in both rimless and rimmed. I've never bought from them, but found them while browsing around for some larger tanks.

travis

I recently found out that this is indeed a Glass Cages tank.

rs79

H. sibthorpioides grows in my lawn near the river. I have acres of that crap. It smells funny when you run the lawn mower over it.

hydrophyte

wow, this is really nice. you know if you were to add a lot more crypts and some more water this would look just like those forest pool mudflats that you see in many of the Cryptocoryne biotope photographs that get around.

fjc973

wow !! great tank .I like yuour set up .