Heart-leaf Crypt

Cryptocoryne cordata

A large and extremely variable water trumpet from Malaysia and Thailand — several plants once counted as separate species belong to it. Slow, undemanding and rare in shops.

Light: low–medium
Difficulty: easy
Temperature: 17 – 30 °C (63 – 86 °F)

Leaf colour: green, red +1 green, red, bronze or brown
Plant type: rosette
Growth rate: slow
Tolerates light: low – medium
pH: 4 – 7
Carbonate hardness: 2 – 12 °dKH
General hardness: 0 – 30 °dGH
Placement: background, midground +1 background, midground, specimen
Propagation: runners, rhizome division +2 runners, rhizome division, division, daughter plants
Grows emersed: yes

Appearance

Broad heart-shaped leaves on long stalks. Colour and size vary widely between the forms of this species — from plain green to bronze and reddish, and from a modest rosette to a large one.

Keeping

Easy and slow: dim to medium light, no carbon dioxide needed, a nutritious substrate. Like all crypts it dislikes being moved and reacts to sudden changes in water by dropping leaves, which then regrow from the rhizome.

Placement

The middle or back of the tank, alone or in a small group — the leaves of a settled plant take up room.

Propagation

By runners, and by dividing the rhizome of an old plant.

Water conditions match

The water suits 841 of 1249 species in the catalogue — these are the ones people look up most often.

Butterflyfish Julii Corydoras Red-finned Parotocinclus Gastromyzon monticola Egg-shaped Goldfish Flame Tetra Gardner's Killifish African Tetra Hypsolebias picturatus Common Zacco Labeo Bicolor Gambusia Flying barb Gastromyzon scitulus Albino Zebra Danio Geophagus Brokopondo Homaloptera bilineata Red-tailed Rasbora Boraras naevus Lampeye Killifish Spotted Raphael Catfish Corydoras melanotaenia Festivum cichlid Pseudomugil paskai

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 Marbled Headstander Pellegrin's Leporinus Leporinus striatus False Black Tetra Common Metynnis Mylossoma duriventre Red Whiptail Catfish 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 Geophagus altifrons Geophagus winemilleri Pearl Cichlid Red-spotted Cichlid 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.

Other varieties: Cryptocoryne blassii, Cryptocoryne cordata var. blassii, Cryptocoryne cordata var. cordata, Cryptocoryne cordata var. siamensis, Cryptocoryne cordata var. siamensis 'Rosanervig', Cryptocoryne siamensis, Cryptocoryne cordata var siamensis, Cryptocoryne cordata var siamensis in Vitro

Scientific and other names, conservation status

Other scientific names: Cryptocoryne blassii de Wit, Cryptocoryne evae var. evae Rataj, Cryptocoryne evae var. recordata Rataj, Cryptocoryne siamensis Gagnep., Cryptocoryne siamensis Gagnep. var. ewansii Rataj, Cryptocoryne cordata 'Rosanervig', Cryptocoryne cordata var. cordata 'Rosanervig', Cryptocoryne blassii, Cryptocoryne diderici, Cryptocoryne zonata
Cryptocoryne cordata: Griffith var. siamensis (Gagnepain) N. Jacobsen & D. Sookchaloem
Family: Araceae
Conservation status: LC

Heart-leaf Crypt

Tank conditions

Care and keeping