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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.