Cryptocoryne beckettii 'Petchii Pink'

Cryptocoryne beckettii

A selected form of 'Petchii' with light reddish to brownish leaves with a red underside and distinctly pink young leaves. Crypts usually run in dark brown-green tones, so this cultivar gives the genus a rare light accent.

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

Leaves light reddish to brownish, with a red underside; young leaves are distinctly pink. It may stay smaller than the original 'Petchii' and grow more slowly, but there is still little experience with the cultivar, and tissue-culture plants take a long time to reach full size.

Keeping

Growth slow (in 'Petchii' it is moderate). Otherwise generally as undemanding as the other Sri Lankan crypts of the C. wendtii and C. beckettii group: light from dim to strong, CO₂ 5–40 mg/l, temperature 22–26 °C.

Placement

Midground, foreground in a group, nano aquarium.

Trade names

In the trade since around 2012, as tissue-culture stock, under the name Cryptocoryne petchii 'Pink'.

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.

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