Beckett's Water Trumpet

Cryptocoryne beckettii

A rosette plant from the streams of Sri Lanka, with olive leaves that are wine-red underneath. It grows in dim light and hard water, and once settled it needs almost nothing.

Light: low
Difficulty: easy
Height: 10 – 20 cm (3.9 – 7.9 in)
Temperature: 15 – 30 °C (59 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red, pink or purple +1 green, red, pink or purple, bronze or brown
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: medium
CO₂ demand: low
Tolerates light: low – high
pH: 5 – 8
Carbonate hardness: 1 – 18 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: midground, foreground +1 midground, foreground, nano tank
Propagation: runners, rhizome division +2 runners, rhizome division, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Oval leaves on long stalks, 10–20 cm tall, with slightly wavy edges; the upper side is olive to brown, the underside violet. Colour and shape shift with the tank — the same plant looks different in bright and in dim light.

Keeping

Easy and patient, but it hates moving. After planting, or after a sharp change in the water, the leaves may rot away within days — the notorious "melt". This is not the end of the plant: leave the roots alone and new leaves grow back in a few weeks. It feeds through the roots, so it likes a nutritious substrate.

Placement

The middle of the tank or the front of a large one; in a nano tank a single rosette works as a centrepiece. Plant it once and do not rearrange it.

Propagation

By runners: a young rosette appears next to the parent and roots itself. Separate it only when it has several leaves of its own, and expect it to sulk for a couple of weeks after the move.

Water conditions match

The water suits 1007 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Swordtail Guppies Cobra Guppy Blood Red Molly Butterflyfish Red Zebra Cichlid Julii Corydoras Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Kenyi Cichlid Cuckoo Catfish Golden Swordtail Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo Zebra Mbuna

Will eat this plant

These species damage plants, especially when their diet is short of vegetable food.

Bengal Loach Zebra Loach Burmese Border Loach Emperor Botia Spined Loach Marbled Headstander Pellegrin's Leporinus Leporinus striatus False Black Tetra Common Metynnis Mylossoma duriventre Red Whiptail Catfish Molly sphenops Balloon Molly Lyretail Molly Marble Molly Hi-Fin Platy Hawaii Platy Blue Platy Pintail Platy Black Platy Chocolate Molly Moonlight Gourami Melanotaenia parva

Will uproot it

These species dig through the substrate and pull rooted plants out.

Marble Loach Peacock Eel Forktail Loach Guntea Loach Long-nosed Loach Horseface Loach Pearlscale Black Moor Goldfish Shubunkin Painted Pleco Featherfin Synodontis Reddish Mystus Catfish Blue Acara Aulonocara maylandi Aulonocara multicolor Aulonocara Orchid Geophagus altifrons Geophagus winemilleri Pearlscale Cichlid Pearl Cichlid Redbelly Cichlid Red-spotted Cichlid Chuco godmanni Haplochromis philander Red Chromide Jack Dempsey cichlid

Matching water does not mean the fish will leave the plant alone.

The same plant with a different look: light, water and care are shared with the species.

Cryptocoryne beckettii 'Petchii Pink'

Cryptocoryne beckettii 'Petchii'

Cryptocoryne beckettii 'Viridifolia'

Other varieties: Cryptocoryne petchii, Cryptocoryne petchii 'Pink'

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Cryptocoryne petchii Alston, Cryptocoryne beckettii, Cryptocoryne petchii
Cryptocoryne beckettii: Thuill. ex Trim.
Family: Araceae
Conservation status: NT

Beckett's Water Trumpet

Tank conditions

Care and keeping