# Cryptocoryne wendtii Root



## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Just one week ago, a tiny _Cryptocoryne wendtii_ leaf popped up against the glass, in a dense carpet of _Sagittaria subulata_. Normally I'd pull a plant growing in an area I've reserved for another species, but it was too small and delicate. Two days later, a second leaf unrolled, and then later a third. So today I decide that the plant is growing very fast and it's time to come out and be relocated.

So I gently pulled...

...and pulled...

...and pulled...

...and finally this popped out.










It was located, just below where the assassin snail is on the glass. It's root went more than 15" towards the Cryptocoryne 'fence'. Perhaps it was a little plantlet that was adrift in the current, and caught in the carpet, which somehow grew an enormous root because it was able to reach deeper than the Sag? Or perhaps the root actually started as an undergravel runner that came from the larger _Cryptocoryne wendtii_ plants, which couldn't poke through the tight weave of the carpeting Sag roots, until it hit the glass. Not sure, but I guess I've got proof a very fertile substrate.

I cut the root, and put the plant into it's species zone, and I put the long root into the fine sand of another tank. Maybe the root has enough energy to sprout a new leaf.


----------



## Otaku (Feb 27, 2010)

lmao, what a climactic ending


----------



## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

Oh this is just the beginning......


----------



## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

What is your setup for the fast growing wendtii's? How fast from when they are cut from the main plant, transplanted somewhere else, and from transplant time how soon so they start to produce new baby plants again?

Thanks


----------



## Will (Jul 24, 2008)

I don't cut any from the main plants. If they popup elsewhere, like this one I pull them when their leaf stalks are big enough to grab without damaging, and then I put them back in the crypt designated areas. I can't tell how long the transplanted ones take to produce new ones because they are mixed into a "wall" of crypts.

Here: http://www.gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27731 is the info for the tank these crypts grew in. If you have specific questions, I can field them there, but the basics of the setup is described. Not sure what I'm doing if anything that the crypts are fast growing because of.


----------



## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Almost all crypts will grow by popping up out of a root some distance from the main plant - so pulling them up often uproots a whole area rather than just one plant.

Once the root systems are established, you can expect new runners all the time


----------

