There was a time when people thought of Crypt melt as an unknown disease. Some may still feel that way. It certainly remains on some of the older writings on the Internet.
I don’t believe Cryptocoryne melt is a disease. It is the plant’s response to a material change in its environment. The plant’s drops its leaves to generate new ones that are adapted to current circumstances. It’s a natural process.
What I’ve noticed is that whether the plants survives this process very much depends on the health of its root system and the amount of stored energy it has. In other words, how healthy it is to begin with.
Therefore, if you received a plant that is in bad shape and you ask it to generate all new leaves, it may not have the needed energy stores to do that. If its roots are not healthy enough to quickly pull that energy from the substrate, it’s got little chance of surviving.
I grow Crypts emersed and so spend a lot of time converting tissue culture plants and plants grown submersed. It’s a struggle mostly because of insufficient root systems and nutrient stores.
Moral of the story, when purchasing Crypts for your aquarium, make sure you ask how it has been grown and try to make sure it is strong and healthy before it ships to you. With tissue cultures ones, factor in that you will likely need to spend time treating it different so that it grows a root system prior to establishing it in your aquarium.
I would love to hear others experiences with this.
I don’t believe Cryptocoryne melt is a disease. It is the plant’s response to a material change in its environment. The plant’s drops its leaves to generate new ones that are adapted to current circumstances. It’s a natural process.
What I’ve noticed is that whether the plants survives this process very much depends on the health of its root system and the amount of stored energy it has. In other words, how healthy it is to begin with.
Therefore, if you received a plant that is in bad shape and you ask it to generate all new leaves, it may not have the needed energy stores to do that. If its roots are not healthy enough to quickly pull that energy from the substrate, it’s got little chance of surviving.
I grow Crypts emersed and so spend a lot of time converting tissue culture plants and plants grown submersed. It’s a struggle mostly because of insufficient root systems and nutrient stores.
Moral of the story, when purchasing Crypts for your aquarium, make sure you ask how it has been grown and try to make sure it is strong and healthy before it ships to you. With tissue cultures ones, factor in that you will likely need to spend time treating it different so that it grows a root system prior to establishing it in your aquarium.
I would love to hear others experiences with this.
